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The Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, hub of American Airlines, is not compliant. It is no different from all other large airports. It hopes to get compliant by October, 1999. And if it misses this deadline. . . ?
Even if the FAA gets its act together, and if the airlines get their jets compliant, if they can't take off and land, it means nothing except large expenses.
To get the airline industry to fly, every component must be 2000-compliant.
At present, no component is 2000-compliant.
The public just sits there, holding onto its airline stocks. The public is in denial.
This is from the Dallas MORNING NEWS (March 7).
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Efforts to fix the long-anticipated computer glitch known as "the year 2000 problem" gathered steam at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Thursday when the airport board approved $1.3 million in contracts for corrective measures.
The board's expenditures are among the first in an estimated $10 million program to prepare D/FW's computer systems for the turn of the century, when computers worldwide are expected to malfunction unless they are fixed or replaced.
"Everything will be remediated, upgraded and fully tested before October 1999," said Bob Hendricks, the airport's acting chief information officer, who was hired last year to help coordinate the effort.
Airport officials are quick to point out that their computer problem has little to do with public safety. But it does affect operational efficiency and customer service for a complex government agency that must keep track of a $300 million annual budget and serve millions of passengers. . . .
D/FW's expenditure is smaller than some. American Airlines, for example, expects to spend more than $100 million to upgrade or replace every kind of computer software system it uses.
"It may well be more than that," said airline spokesman Tim Smith. "Our goal is to have the really critical items done by midyear this year."
John Clabes, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said the agency has set up a task force on the issue and has changed half of its computer systems that don't accept the year 2000. The agency is still working on its D/FW systems, he said.
The airport's technical staff is monitoring other efforts at the airport to solve the 2000 glitch.
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