IT Master Planning Plays an Emerging Role

She adds that FAA also needs to rethink its funding requirements for airports, and account for the rapidly growing need for IT at airports. “FAA needs to be more aware of the requirement for technology in those programs and be willing to fund it,” she says. “We run into difficulty all the time with most of our clients; when they’re doing those updates they want to include technology as part of the program, but there are funding limitations within the FAA about what it will fund or let the airport consider. The best we usually get funded is an infrastructure master plan, which is basically the wiring, conduit, duct banks, etc. That’s way short of what does the airport actually need in the building to operate it.”