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FAA To Stop Direct Sales Of Aeronautical Charts
To The Public Eff October 2013 |
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September 10, 2013 - The Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) will end
Direct-to-the-Public Subscriptions and Sales of
paper aeronautical charts and related paper
products. Back in July the FAA reported it would
no long renew subscriptions for these products
and would only supple those with subscriptions
until October 1, 2013.
With the growth of the internet and advances in
personal computing devices, pilots have relied
increasingly on digital aeronautical products
rather than traditional paper charts.
Some digital products the FAA made available
were replicated and resold without
authorization. In some cases, this was done in a
way that did not preserve the integrity of the
original product, which created a potential
unintended risk to aviation safety.
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In addition, the FAA's cost recovery for digital
products has not kept pace with changing
technology. The FAA has been producing
aeronautical charts and products since the
Aeronautical Charting Program was transferred to
the FAA from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration in October 2000.
Public Law 106-181, dated April 5, 2000 gave the
FAA the legislative authority to charge fees to
recover the cost of producing paper and digital
products. That authority was codified in Title
49, United States Code, section 44721. The FAA
now develops aeronautical products and sells
them through a network of about 400 authorized
aeronautical chart agents, as well as through
direct sales to the public.
The FAA is on target for October 1, 2013, to
discontinue all other direct-to-the-public
individual sales of paper aeronautical charts
and related paper products. All future
individual purchases, and subscriptions of the
FAA’s aeronautical paper products will be sold
expressly through the FAA's worldwide network of
authorized chart sales agents. Back in 2011 and
2012 the FAA meet with aeronautical chart
agents, application developers, and
representative stakeholder groups (e.g., NBAA,
AOPA, GAMA,) to speak on these changes. |
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