V3242064_OAG_Data_SSJ_v3_Redacted.pdf

V220T.12 (01/19)

Procurement Request No. 3242064

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

VOLPE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS CENTER (VOLPE CENTER)

ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUREMENT AND MODELING DIVISION, V324

SOLE SOURCE SAP JUSTIFICATION

A. Description of Supplies/Services. As a part of its ongoing support for the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) Office of Environment and Energy (AEE), the Volpe Center’s Acoustics and Air Quality facilities are undertaking a lead role in the continued development of the Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT). For several years, the comprehensive body of airline schedule data required to sustain this effort came from products purchased on an annual basis by the Volpe Center from the Official Airline Guide (OAG). Specifically, the AEDT’s increasingly complex data needs require a proprietary historical airline schedule database, OAG’s Historical Schedule Files. The need for this OAG data by AEDT developers and users will continue for the 2020 - 2024 data years. The Volpe Center therefore needs to procure another five-year data subscription for access to proprietary Historical Schedule Files for the 2020 - 2024 data years of the historical airline schedule database, including one funded base year and four optional years.

The specific objective of this award is for OAG, a key industry source for airline schedule data, to provide its airline schedule dataset.

B. Market Research. Technical meetings in February and June 2020 with FAA and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have established that in order to meet the requirements of the 2020-2024 noise and emissions inventories at FAA and ICAO, input data will need to continue to include the OAG Historical Schedule Files. These meetings and subsequent conference calls, all involving the Volpe Project Manager, have confirmed that FAA and ICAO Committee for Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) requirements for the AEDT inventories to be generated for data years 2020 - 2024 will require analyses performed utilizing the proprietary Historical Schedule Files. These meetings and conference calls with policy leads, scientists, and data experts at FAA, ICAO, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and other stakeholders have confirmed that no other source of historical airline schedule data will be accepted by FAA, ICAO, and the scientific community in the AEDT inventory analyses.

C. Supporting Rationale. Complete one of the following three sections and annotate the two non-applicable sections with an “N/A.”

(1) Sole Source: Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

(i) Due to the highly international R&D nature of the work inherent to ICAO/CAEP scenario analyses involving international research institutes, international universities, U.S. Government agencies, and foreign governments, all data and analysis techniques utilized in any studies performed for ICAO/CAEP must be accepted by all ICAO/CAEP members, including FAA, for any results to be valid. The only historical airline schedule data approved by ICAO/CAEP for performing the AEDT inventory analysis is gained through the Historical Schedule Files provided by OAG.

(ii) Not contracting with OAG to provide the required access to the proprietary Historical Schedule Files would cost the Volpe Center, the FAA, ICAO/CAEP, and the scientific community in general the opportunity to learn a great deal more about the increasing impacts of aviation on global aviation noise, congestion, and climate change. The Volpe Center risks the following consequences if OAG is not contracted to provide the proprietary Historical Schedule Files described in the specification sheet:

• The Volpe Center and FAA would not be able to complete the AEDT inventories for 2020-2024.

• Requirements to predict and meet U.S. and worldwide aviation needs at FAA, the Volpe Center, FAA’s

Office of Aviation Policy and Plans (APO), and the FAA’s Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT) , also known as the Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and Environment, would not be generated or would remain incomplete.

• Strategies and policies to mitigate aviation gaseous and noise emissions, particularly in the area of airports worldwide, would remain unworkable due to insufficient dataset comparison and analysis.

V220T.12 (01/19)

(iii) There is no other dataset provider that can deliver the proprietary Historical Schedule Files.