FAA, as part of the final version of its strategic plan, will create a safety index that combines all aviation safety measurements into one number, Administrator Marion Blakey said yesterday.

Blakey said the consolidated safety index would be a "much broader metric" than has been issued by the agency before, and will be calculated from a wide range of factors, including runway incursions, turbulence injuries and general aviation accidents. Peggy Gilligan, deputy associate administrator-regulation and certification, said the index will be like "the Dow Jones of aviation safety" and will give the public and industry a way to judge the health of the system.

Gilligan said the aviation industry is enthusiastic about the index, although she acknowledged much work still remains to be done to determine what weight to assign to the various measurements. The index will be introduced within two years, she said.

A draft of the strategic plan was released about three months ago (DAILY, July 10), but it underwent several changes after consultation with industry and FAA employees. Blakey reiterated her determination to link the five-year plan to agency budgets. She said this was difficult with the 2004 budget, but the 2005 budget would be "absolutely tied to the plan."

In the last two months, all FAA offices created their own business plans to meet the strategic plan goals, the first time some had done this, Blakey said. FAA will establish progress measurements for each element of the plan, and publish these numbers on the agency's web site and update them every quarter, Blakey said.

FAA added a fifth objective to the plan's capacity growth section, stressing the importance of environmental factors, such as fuel efficiency, emission reduction and noise initiatives.

The agency also realized the draft plan did not address the need to close National Transportation Safety Board recommendations, and added a new initiative to cover this effort. Blakey said the "exchange of letters [between FAA and NTSB] is not productive, what is important is action." Gilligan said "SWAT teams" have been formed to focus on individual recommendations, and the agency expects to close a large number soon.

Comments on the draft plan said its international goals were too "Eurocentric," Blakey said, adding that it was probably because the agency "has been working very aggressively" with the newly created European Aviation Safety Agency. FAA adjusted the plan's goals to highlight other areas of the world as well.

Blakey said the new agency-wide cost-accounting system, known as Delphi, would become operational next month. This will "make a great difference in how we use resources," Blakey said.