FAA Flight Plan Performance Report

Flight Plan Performance Report

• FY 2009 2^nd Quarter Performance Report

FAA Flight Plan 2^nd Quarter Performance Report — March 2009

What is the Flight Plan?

It is the FAA's strategic plan for 2009 through 2013. Our mission is to provide the safest and most efficient aerospace system in the world. The Flight Plan provides the foundation for achieving this mission based on four goal areas: Increased Safety, Greater Capacity, International Leadership, and Organizational Excellence. Our 2009 - 2013 Flight Plan is available on the FAA website at www.faa.gov.

How do we tie pay to performance?

As a pay-for-performance agency, the FAA uses a performance-based system for compensating our employees. Pay is adjusted each year based on the agency's success in meeting the Flight Plan performance targets. All employee performance plans are linked directly back to those targets. Under the performance-based plan, employees’ annual pay raise is based on an organizational success increase (OSI). A full OSI payout requires us to meet at least 90 percent, or 28 out of 31, of the Flight Plan performance targets at the end of the fiscal year.

How are we doing?

By the end of the second quarter, 87 percent of our targets are green, with two red performance targets and two yellow performance targets.

In the Safety Goal Area, Operational Errors is RED, and both Terminal and En Route facilities are reviewing the incidents to determine causal factors and appropriate interventions. Although we are seeing an improvement over time, we are not yet where we need to be to achieve this target.

In Capacity, NAS On-Time Arrival remains YELLOW. We require this to be above the target by 2 percent during the year to be green, which gives us a "cushion" for meeting the end-of-year target.

International Leadership continues to remain successful in meeting all four targets.

Organizational Excellence ends this quarter with the Clean Audit target again a deliberate cautionary YELLOW and the Air Traffic Controller Positions Workforce Plan is RED. This is because we are more than 2 percent above the hiring target. There are a couple of reasons for this -- fewer controllers are retiring right now than expected, and our needs have also dropped as aviation activity has slowed during the economic downturn. We have adjusted the hiring plan accordingly and expect this to go back to green next month.

Where are we going?

For FY 2009, we have refreshed our Flight Plan to improve our metrics and align our resources and priorities, to meet the needs of the future, including the implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System, while remaining focused on safety. We will continue to track our progress towards meeting our targets and the expectations of our employees and stakeholders. We invite you to check back with us on our status for 3rd quarter at the end of July.

Lynne Osmus
Acting Administrator