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Executive Summary
Kevin Kollman, Dispatch Network Manager, USAirways
Chris Pear, Manager of Flight Dispatch Operations, United Airlines
Mike Wambsganss, Vice President, Metron, Inc.
Collaborative Decision Making (CDM):
before the
National Civil Aviation Review Commission

In this testimony representatives of the joint FAA/industry program known as Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) present a new way of doing business based on collaboration and information exchange. The focus of the CDM Working Group, which has recently become RTCA Special Committee 191, Collaborative Air Traffic Management, is operational; how to manage the flow of traffic in the National Airspace System to improve safety and efficiency. CDM seeks win-win situations where the overall system becomes safer and more efficient and individual users, such as the airlines, are able to operate more efficiently as defined by their own economic objectives. The FAA has estimated that the initial steps of CDM alone, those scheduled for implementation in late 1997 to early 1998, will save the users some $2.6B through the year 2004 with much greater savings when one considers passenger value of time. Yet, until just recently, the FAA has been very reluctant to fund activities such as CDM which are not very costly and do not involve high technology solutions. The CDM representatives conclude by recommending that the Commission embrace collaboration as a philosophy by creating a system whereby the users of the National Airspace System (NAS) can have input in the requirements process, budget requests to congress, funding prioritization within the FAA, and in the development of policy decisions for expanded operational information exchange.