FAA TECHNICIAN AND INSPECTOR STAFFING
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO (PASS) represents approximately 11,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees in five separate bargaining units throughout the United States and in several foreign locations. PASS members include Technical Operations employees (systems specialists, electronics technicians and computer specialists) who install, maintain, repair and certify the radar, navigation, communication and environmental systems making up the air traffic control system; Flight Standards and manufacturing aviation safety inspectors responsible for inspecting and certifying every aspect of the commercial and general aviation industries; flight inspection pilots, mission specialists and procedures development specialists in Aviation System Standards; examiners in the FAA’s Civil Aviation Registry; and support staff.
PASS is extremely concerned about staffing of the FAA technician and inspector workforces. Technician and inspector staffing must be addressed and remedied immediately in order to keep this country’s aviation system the safest and most efficient in the world.
Technician Staffing
Insufficient technical staffing continues to be a problem at facilities throughout the country. The FAA has recently fallen below 6,100 technicians, which was the figure previously agreed upon by PASS and the FAA as being the minimum number of technicians needed to maintain the system safely. In fact, some facilities are staffed at less than half of what the facility’s workload generates. This makes daily operations difficult and results in more unplanned outages and a dramatic increase in restoration times. In testimony, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) cited an increase in unscheduled outages from an average of 21 hours in 2001 to about 40 hours in 2006 as a potential sign that “maintenance and troubleshooting activities are requiring more effort and longer periods of time.”
As a result, the FAA is employing a new maintenance philosophy where periodic maintenance and certification of National Airspace System (NAS) systems and equipment are significantly reduced. In other words, instead of hiring additional employees, the FAA is changing its maintenance approach, claiming a move towards efficiency. PASS believes this change will place aviation safety at risk and is merely an attempt to mitigate the impacts of inadequate staffing.
The chronic understaffing of the FAA’s technical workforce is exacerbated by an inability to accurately determine the number of employees and job skills needed to safely and efficiently maintain the NAS. Currently, the FAA does not have a staffing standard that can accurately determine the number of technicians needed to meet the agency’s mission. In today’s changing environment, it is critical to have a staffing standard in place for the FAA technical workforce and that the FAA be required to abide by that standard.
Inspector Staffing
Inspector staffing levels are not adequate to meet growing industry demands and ensure the safety of the aviation system. There are approximately 2,900 Flight Standards (FS) field aviation safety inspectors and 150 Manufacturing Inspection District Office (MIDO) inspectors, but nearly 50 percent of FAA inspectors are eligible to retire over the next several years. Insufficient inspector staffing combined with the evolving aviation industry places an incredible workload on the inspector workforce, which has already resulted in missed or cancelled inspections due to lack of staffing. With the increasing number of aviation manufacturers, growing number of aging aircraft, the emergence of new trends in aviation and the expansion of the FAA’s designee programs—all of which require additional inspector oversight—it is imperative that there are enough inspectors in place to monitor the safety of the system.
In addition, a significant concern regarding the inspector workforce is the aviation industry’s increasing reliance on outsourced maintenance work. Whereas much of this work was once done at the air carrier’s facility, according to the Department of Transportation Inspector General (IG), major air carriers outsourced an average of 64 percent of their maintenance expenses in 2007, compared to 37 percent in 1996. For the most recent report, the IG reviewed nine major air carriers. These carriers sent 71 percent of their heavy airframe maintenance checks—including performing complete teardowns of aircraft—to repair stations in 2007, up from 34 percent in 2003. Foreign repair stations performed 27 percent of outsourced heavy maintenance checks for these nine air carriers in 2007, up from 21 percent in 2003.
Congressional Action Requested
Technician staffing:
Section 603 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009 (H.R. 915) and Section 708 of the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Act (S. 1451) both include language that directs the GAO to conduct a study of technician training and the National Academy of Sciences to examine the staffing needs of the technician workforce. As such, PASS is in full support of this language.
Inspector staffing:
Sections 605 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009 (H.R. 915) and Section 708 of the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Act (S. 1451) both include language that directs the FAA to develop a staffing model for aviation safety inspectors, and include PASS in the process and, upon completion of the model, implement the inspector staffing standards. Section 606 of H.R. 915 also authorizes specific funding to increase inspector staffing. PASS is in full support of this language and would like to see similar language regarding inspector staffing included in the Senate version of the bill.
