**GAO-11-91**                      Published: Oct 22, 2010. Publicly Released: Oct 22, 2010.                  

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## Highlights

Since 2006, air traffic control (ATC) equipment outages and failures at Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facilities have caused hundreds of flight delays and raised questions about FAA's maintenance capabilities. About 6,100 technicians maintain FAA's current (legacy) facilities and equipment and will be responsible for the Next Generation (NextGen) technologies planned for the next 15 years. Safe and efficient air travel will therefore partly depend on FAA's having technicians with the right skills now and in the future. As requested, GAO reviewed how (1) FAA incorporates key practices of leading organizations in its workforce planning for technicians, (2) FAA's technician training compares with key practices of leading organizations, and (3) the costs of technician training, including travel costs, have changed in recent years. GAO analyzed FAA workforce and training data, compared FAA planning and training practices with criteria identified in prior GAO work, and conducted focus group interviews with FAA technicians and FAA Training Academy instructors.

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## Topics

Human Capital

AviationBest practicesEmployee trainingHuman capitalHuman capital managementHuman capital planningHuman capital policiesKnowledge, skills and abilitiesLabor forceLegacy systemsMaintenance standardsSkilled laborStrategic planningTraining utilizationStaff utilizationCost analysisAir traffic control systemsCost estimatesMaintenance operations