Kelly to FAA: Keep Weather Services Intact at Stewart Airport

Kelly to FAA: Keep Weather Services Intact at Stewart Airport
December 1, 2005

WASHINGTON - U.S. Representative Sue Kelly is pressuring Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials to reverse an earlier indication that weather services would no longer be provided to Stewart International Airport now that the federal agency has outsourced those operations.

Kelly recently met with FAA officials in Washington, and then wrote to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey last week to continue her reprimand of the agency after learning that the FAA had indicated to Stewart officials that the hourly weather observations and special weather observations the airport currently receives from the FAA would be discontinued.

The FAA told the airport that the change would be the result of a public-private competition for weather services performed by the FAA's Automated Flight Service Station. The services were contracted out to Lockheed Martin.

FAA officials assured Kelly during the Nov. 18 meeting that all weather services are still being provided to Stewart at this time, and that the FAA is currently in negotiations with Lockheed Martin to ensure that vital weather services continue to be provided to Stewart long-term.

While those FAA officials were optimistic that the negotiations would result in continued weather services to Stewart, Kelly continued to press her case in her letter to Blakey last week.

"This development poses an unacceptable safety risk and I request that you remedy the situation immediately," Kelly wrote. "Weather services are critical to any airport, including Stewart, and their loss poses an unnecessary and unacceptable threat to passenger safety."

In addition to passenger safety risks, Kelly is stressing to the FAA that the loss of weather services at Stewart could cause a significant reduction in operations provided by the airport. It could force a stoppage in night operations, close third shifts in the control tower, and cease early-morning flights because pilots especially need this weather information first thing in the morning.

"As FAA is responsible for aviation safety, it is incumbent upon the Agency to ensure that weather services, which provide invaluable safety-related information to pilots and air traffic controllers, continue to be provided to controllers and pilots servicing Stewart," Kelly wrote.

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