The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Safety Assurance System (SAS) is a mission-critical application used by over 5,000 Aviation Safety Inspectors (ASI) and approximately 2,000 industry partners to perform certification and safety oversight functions.

ASIs help maintain safe skies by overseeing the operations of major airlines, air ambulance operators, repair stations, pilot schools, and many other types of aviation businesses. FAA inspectors use SAS to certify new businesses that provide services to the public and to manage safety risks associated with those operations. The U.S. DOT Volpe Center provides aviation safety expertise to this project and has supported SAS-related work for FAA for many years.

In July 2025, at the request of FAA, and on an extremely accelerated timeline, two standalone FAA systems, the Operations Approval Portal System (OAPS) and the Web-based Operations Safety System (WebOPSS) were subsumed into SAS by the U.S. DOT Volpe team. OAPS allowed certificate holders, operators, and applicants to submit operations approvals to FAA as well as track those submissions in real-time. Users could also edit, review, and approve previously submitted applications. WebOPSS provided users with tools to create and manage operator-specific authorizing documents, and assisted in collecting non-regulatory, operator-specific data.

Through WebOPSS, users could also access a robust data reporting capability. Authorizing documents created in WebOPSS included management specifications, training specifications, letters of authorization, and waivers. An important component of WebOPSS was the creation of a company’s operating specifications (OpSpecs), which gives certificate holders, including major airlines, the authority to operate.

In less than three weeks, three months ahead of schedule and in response to FAA’s request to fast-track the work, the U.S. DOT Volpe Center team, with support and coordination provided by FAA, successfully incorporated the capabilities of both OAPS and WebOPSS into SAS, and deployed SAS Phase 4 OAPS/OPSS functionality to all 168 FAA offices. This significant shift required rapid adaptation from the U.S. DOT Volpe Center team who demonstrated remarkable agility and creativity to meet a seemingly impossible deadline. The team effectively absorbed this accelerated timeline by strategically migrating data and optimizing document preload, while ensuring data integrity, utilizing proactive error management, and direct user support in deploying the functionality throughout FAA.

ASIs received one of the most significant benefits of the change to this expedited implementation: in the past, ASIs were required to enter duplicate data into both SAS and WebOPSS as part of their oversight responsibilities. Data capture is now far more efficient, with ASIs entering information solely in SAS.

About the U.S. DOT Volpe Center

Since 1970, the U.S. DOT Volpe Center has advanced transportation innovation for the public good, providing multimodal applied research, collaborating with federal, state, and industry partners, and multidisciplinary technical leadership and expertise to solve complex transportation challenges. Learn more at www.volpe.dot.gov.