What happened to the PE expansion?

[David Gilbert]

Well its been around a year or so since the original plans for the PilotEdge expansion was announced. About six months ago it was said that the relevant data was trickling through but since then there hasn't been a single mention about it.

Is the expansion still going ahead?

If it is still going ahead what kind of time scales are we now looking at?

When a big project like this suddenly goes quiet it's either very good news or very bad news.

[Keith Smith]

If we'd known then what we know now about the FAA's ability to provide the data we need, we would have taken a different route from the outset, and we wouldn't have announced the expansion until it was just about ready to launch. They have missed every single deadline with regards to delivering the information we requested more than a year ago. I won't go into detail about what a debacle it's been, but the inefficiency and lack of follow through there would absolutely blow your mind. We are working on alternate means to construct the few remaining pieces we need. The project isn't far from completion and remains a very high priority.

I realize it's been quiet, but please know that if we had decided to pull the plug, we would've made an announcement explaining why.

If anyone's curious, previous requests from the FAA were serviced in a reasonable amount of time with a satisfactory response. Based on that, we assumed we'd be able to get what we needed in the request for data that was associated with the planned expansion. However, we needed certain types of data that we hadn't originally requested the first time around, and it's that additional type of data which we were just told is being handled by a completely different department, and we have no idea of the status of the request for that data.

Your assumption that something either very good or very bad is happening is incorrect. It's simply delayed as we execute a different plan to finish off the last remaining task in assembling the data for the airspace. As soon as that is completed, we will announce a release date and begin training/hiring.

The expansion as being vital to the growth of the company. It's just not the case that we would quietly shelve the plan and say nothing about it. It's going ahead. As always, I will post relevant updates in the original expansion thread. There just hasn't been anything relevant to post.

[BFG]

Thanks, Keith. As always, you are being candid and transparent and it's great. I also appreciate the update. While I've not been skeptical about the expansion based on the timeline, it is good to have an update time to time just to satisfy curiosity, and I think the interest level reflects your users' passion for the service (at least, I know it does mine).

One hopes the FAA responds without our having to grab the pitchforks and torches.

[David Gilbert]

Keith, thank you for the response. It's great to know that the project is still alive.

[zerofay32]

FAA motto: We're not happy until you're not happy.

[Heavyflyer767]

Just another alphabet agency that has no incentive to do a job.