East Coast Flight Services, Inc. (B-423977)

You should not care.

Category: legal sufficiency, best value, past performance recency

Date: 7 January 2026

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423977

East Coast Flight Services protested USTRANSCOM’s fixed-wing services award to CSI Aviation, but its filing never got off the ground (editor’s note: look at AI being funny). The protest mainly complained that the awardee’s price was higher, that the unsuccessful-offeror notice contained mistakes, and that ECFS had strong prior experience.

GAO dismissed the protest as legally insufficient. The solicitation expressly allowed award to a higher-rated, higher-priced offeror, so a bare complaint about paying more did not state a claim. GAO also treated the allegedly inaccurate postaward notice as a procedural matter unrelated to the validity of the award itself.

As for past performance, ECFS relied on experience from 2015 to 2020, but the solicitation limited consideration to references within three years of proposal submission. Because the cited experience fell outside that window, the allegation failed on the face of the solicitation.

Digest

1. Protest challenging the award of a contract solely on basis that the awardee's proposal was higher-priced is dismissed as legally insufficient where the solicitation expressly permitted award of a higher technically rated proposal with a higher price.
2. Protest alleging that the unsuccessful offeror notice contained incorrect information is dismissed as legally insufficient because post-award notices are procedural matters that are unrelated to the validity of the award.
3. Protest alleging that the agency unreasonably evaluated the protester's past performance is dismissed as legally insufficient where the solicitation precluded the agency from considering the protester's references where they were outside of the 3-year window permitted by the solicitation.