What To Do About FSS?

J. Mac McClellan

Saturday, November 01, 2003 at 10:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The FAA is reviewing Flight Service Stations (FSS) due to their high operational costs, with human-delivered telephone briefings being significantly more expensive than computer-delivered automated services (DUAT).
Modern technology, including DUAT, internet sources, and in-cockpit weather systems, now provides pilots with more comprehensive, graphical, and cost-effective access to aviation weather data than traditional FSS briefers.
Despite some pilots' preference for human interaction, the article suggests the FAA's study will likely justify radical changes, including consolidation, outsourcing, and a reduction in human FSS briefer positions.

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The FAA has conducted a study among pilots to determine how they use Flight Service Stations. The agency also hopes to determine what we like and don’t like about the FSS. Bottom line: the FAA is looking for reasons, or even cover, to radically change the FSS, or even eliminate it.

The FAA’s reason for examining the FSS operation is both sound and familiar. It’s cost. Every telephone briefing by an FSS specialist costs taxpayers many dollars, perhaps as much as $25, according to some estimates. The FAA spokesman couldn’t come up with a cost per briefing estimate. Every computer-delivered briefing over the direct user access terminal (DUAT) costs only about 50 cents. The difference is startling and certainly deserves examination in these times of tight budgets.