Order 1320.62, Air Traffic Organization Directives Management

When writing directives, offices of primary responsibility (OPRs)/writers and subject matter experts must follow this order plus FAA Order 1320.1 and any local supplement to this order.

Memoranda and SOPs are not an authorized way to issue policy in the ATO. There is no requirement for stakeholder review, comment, or concurrence on them. Therefore, do not use either of them instead of a directive.

FAA Administrators have acknowledged how clear language supports the safety mission. In addition to publishing these directives, they have separately issued statements expressing their commitment to transparency and clarity, and endorsing the use of passive voice and pronouns-the hallmarks of plain language.

Service areas are geographic divisions--eastern, central, and western—of the United States. From an organizational standpoint, ATO service area management is midway between headquarters and field facilities.

All ATO directives, except those written for the entire FAA and field level directives, take a three-letter prefix.

Some ATO offices employ writer-editors or technical writer-editors to help OPRs and subject matter experts develop directives and other documents. When this is the case, OPRs are responsible for a document's content and intent, and writer-editors are responsible for a document's style and formatting.

Fair and sufficient coordination time is needed to collect meaningful comments from reviewers. FAA Order 1320.1 (Appendix B, paragraph 3b) allows 20 working days to coordinate with shareholders. Guidelines are given below, but OPR/writers and DMOs should also consider the complexity of the subject matter, impact of the policy on the reviewing organizations, length of the draft, and the number of reviewers when determining the due date for comments. Guidelines are: a. If a directive needs Headquarters review only, give reviewers at least 30 working days. b. If a directive needs service area review, give reviewers at least 45 working days.

If your draft directive meets the requirement for an ATO prefix, identify it on the first page under the header section as follows: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION Air Traffic Organization Policy

The Technical Operations Safety and Operations Support directorate issues and uses maintenance alerts when maintenance personnel need quick notification (about maintenance moratoria, interim procedures, seasonal information, issues that could affect facilities and services) to take appropriate action.

All ATO directives, except those written for the entire FAA and field level directives, take a two-letter prefix. The first letter, "J," is permanently assigned to the ATO. The second letter discerns which area the directive covers, as follows: "JO" applies to the whole ATO, contains ATO-wide policy or applies nationwide to one or more business units/support offices.