AK SJR20

Alaska Legislature urges Congress to include language in the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2024 addressing outages of 109 AWOS (Automated Weather Observing System) and 44 ASOS (Automated Surface Observing System) stations in the state

From 2019-2023, approximately 59 percent of all AWOS and ASOS stations experienced full outages with median resolution time of 3.3 days, while 77 percent experienced reduced-service outages with median resolution time of 4.4 days

Requests FAA implement nine specific measures including requiring reliability standards, publishing real-time status dashboards, improving spare parts availability, and authorizing satellite Internet redundancy and state maintenance of weather stations

Emphasizes Alaska's critical dependence on aviation due to 82 percent of communities being disconnected from road systems and reliance on weather data for aviation safety, noting Alaska accounts for 6.6 percent of all aviation accidents despite having only 0.2 percent of U.S. population

Directs copies to be sent to federal agencies, Alaska's congressional delegation, and state officials to support inclusion of these initiatives in the Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative