ABSTRACT
The formation of the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) in 2004 has both streamlined decision making and brought decisions about capital investment and operations more closely together in FAA’s organizational structure. ATO has placed greater emphasis on developing a cost accounting system and has emphasized developing performance metrics and operational goals. These could be important improvements in air traffic management in the United States, but the challenges the ATO faces are enormous and the changes made thus far won’t be enough to meet those challenges. Since 1995, GAO has designated the ATC modernization program a high-risk information technology initiative because of its size, complexity, cost, and problem-plagued past.1 Under the best of circumstances, the ATO would face a difficult task in its capital projects because they tend to be complex and often push the edge of available technology.2 But the ATO does not face the best of circumstances. Instead, three fundamental barriers, which can also be viewed as challenges, remain that severely impede the ATO from building and operating an efficient air traffic management system to handle the anticipated growth in air traffic:
Disconnect between the cost drivers and the revenue drivers. Diffused accountability. Lack of organizational independence.
