Since Spetmebr 11th, what is the cost of training Flight Crews with
the new security measures?

---

Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 29 Jul 2003 08:07 PDT

"Flight Crew" refers to a great number of positions of varying
complexity. Which specific positions are you most interested in?
(keeping in mind that some current data may be available on one
position while data about another position might not be).

regards;
tutuzdad-ga

Dear Shannon Grace, 

There had been a permanent controversy - and as it usually happens in
cases of political disputes, also lack of clarity - on the costs of
the training of pilots in the post September 11 era.

According to an article (2002) in the World Net Daily, training of
flight crews (specifically, 85,000 commercial pilots and crew members)
on security measures, and especially to prevent further hijackings, is
estimated by the Administration to cost $900 Million. (Source: Jon
Dougherty, "Too expensive to arm pilots?" WorldNetDaily,
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28861).

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta reportedly estimated that the
set up costs would be $1 Billion, with annual retention costs of $250
million (ibid).

However, others claim that such a plan would cost much less, about
$2,500 for each pilot (ibid).

At the end, and due to the fact that the budget of the Transportation
Security Administration was a fraction of what was estimated to be
needed to train all flights crew, the spending on training is much
lower. The "Federal Flight Deck Officer" Programme, to which pilot
volunteer to receive counter-terrorism training, would be funded with
$8 Million (See: TSA Press Release, April 2003, "TSA Announces $8
Million in FY03 Budget to Train More Federal Flight Deck Officers by
October 2003", USNewsWire,
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/qtr2_2003/0424-127.html). The agency
has requested further $25 Million for the fiscal year 2004 (beginning
this September), to maintain and finance this programme (See: TSA
Press Release, "TSA Fully Implements Federal Flight Deck Officer
Program; Weekly Classes Start July 20 "
<http://www.tsa.gov/public/display?theme=44&content=552>). In a talk
with AP (published in Atlanta Journal Constitution), Robert Johnson
(spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration), said that
"Training a single pilot costs $6,200, but there are likely to be new
expenses for equipment and training aids" (Source: "More pilots to get
gun training" <http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/delta/0403/24pilots.html>).

Search Terms: 
"Federal Flight Deck" "budget OR costs" 
flight crews" "airlines" security costs training September 
Flight Crews" cost training September security 
"Flight Crews" cost training security 
And similar strategies. 

I hope this answers your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarifications on the answer.