A four-year survey has found that contract air traffic control towers in the United States had safety records that resembled those of comparable towers operated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) says.
The contract towers also were more cost-effective than FAA towers in terms of per aircraft costs, according to a report issued in late April by the OIG.
The OIG examined data for fiscal years 2015 through 2018 (Oct. 1, 2014, through Sept. 30, 2018) and found that, “we do not believe the difference between these numbers and those of FAA’s towers is meaningful because, among other reasons, the numbers of safety-related events across the NAS [National Airspace System] were very low, relative to the total number of flights.”
The study also found that, “on average, contract towers used at least 47.6 percent fewer resources, or incurred lower controller staffing costs, per aircraft handled per year, …
