The Guild

FAA awards ATC project to the Guild

Washington Star-Globe

Washington, DC - The Federal Aviation Administration announced today the official award of the contract to completely rebuild the Air Traffic Control system to the Guild. The move was not entirely unexpected, as early reports indicated that the Guild was on odds-on favorite in the race for the lucrative contract.

"It was the right thing to do," said Guild Mage Remus in a telephone interview. "The Guild is the only organization they could have entrusted this to."

While officials at the FAA declined to be interviewed on the subject a spokesperson said "there is no denying that the Guild has collected the best of the best in the computer field and will do an outstanding job."

But some question the wisdom of the award. Consumer advocate Roland Humphries has long been one of the Guild's most vocal detractors. He could not be interviewed because of a technical problem with his phones and email system, but in an earlier press conference he said, "trusting this many lives and this much money to someone you can't even meet face to face is both absurd and very, very frightening."

Remus doesn't agree. "Let's say you want to disrupt the system," he said. "All you have to do is coerce someone who has high level security access. In our case, it's a non-issue. All that money and all those lives will be safely in our hands."

The project, estimated at $1.5 billion, will begin within two months.