FAA Awards ESRI Multiyear Enterprise License Agreement

FAA is a longtime user of ESRI software for applications including obstruction evaluation, charting, airspace evaluations, aeronautical data management, minimum vectoring altitudes, facilities management, noise monitoring and modeling, and environmental assessment. This strategic agreement broadens GIS software deployment into new areas such as instrument approach procedure development, safety, resource allocation, and automated Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). In addition, it supports the initiatives FAA is currently implementing to improve its software licensing procedures with a goal to increase performance, improve customer service, and reduce costs. Comments Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI, "While FAA has used our suite of software products for several years, we are honored that it has signed an enterprise license agreement with us. This is a significant vote of confidence for our company and will allow FAA to easily expand the use of GIS as its needs continue to grow." Adds Terry Bills, ESRI's transportation industry manager, "We look forward to working more closely with FAA as it explores how ESRI's geospatial technologies can make U.S. air transportation safer and more efficient." The ELA promises to significantly reduce procurement time by decreasing the amount of research necessary to source GIS software, minimize the development of technical documents, and condense the requests for bids and the subsequent evaluation of offers. The contract will further decrease costs, reduce paperwork, and save time by eliminating the need for repetitive, individual purchases from the current schedule contract. The FAA has 46,338 employees and other support staff, the vast majority providing air traffic services and maintaining the airspace system. The airlines are expected to carry a record 776 million passengers within the United States during 2008, and that number is projected to grow to one billion passengers by 2016.