NextGen Implementation
Managing NextGen's Implementation at FAA
The goal of the NextGen Implementation Plan is to focus the FAA and the aviation community on making firm commitments to implement new operational capabilities in a coordinated, timely fashion. Within the FAA, NextGen implementation requires planning and execution across all lines of business. Three key management structures are responsible for NextGen decision-making and progress monitoring:
- NextGen Management Board
- NextGen Review Board
- Senior Vice President for NextGen and Operations Planning
NextGen Management Board
The NextGen Management Board (formerly called the OEP Associates Team), chaired by FAA's Deputy Administrator, takes an “enterprise approach” to developing and executing FAA's NextGen plan. With representatives from all key agency lines of business, the Board has the authority to force timely resolution of emerging NextGen implementation issues. The Board's focus includes:
- Measuring the progress of deployments and of key activities that support decision-making
- Ensuring essential resources are available, including reprioritizing resources as necessary
- Issuing policies and guidance
- Identifying leaders within their organizations who will be accountable for delivering system changes
Ruth Leverenz - Deputy Administrator (acting)
Hank Krakowski - ATO Chief Operating Officer
Nick Sabatini - Associate Administrator, Aviation Safety
Catherine Lang - Deputy Associate Administrator, Airports
Paula Lewis - Acting Assistant Administrator, Regions and Center Operations
Ramesh Punwani - Assistant Administrator, Financial Services/Chief Financial Officer
Dan Elwell - Assistant Administrator, Aviation Policy Planning & Environment
David Bowen - Assistant Administrator, Information Services & Chief Information Officer
Eugene Juba - ATO Senior Vice President, Financial Services
Victoria Cox - ATO Senior Vice President, NextGen and Operations Planning Services
Rick Day - ATO Vice President, En Route and Oceanic Services
Bruce Johnson - ATO Vice President, Terminal Services
Nancy Kalinowski - ATO Vice President, System Operations Services
Steve Zaidman - ATO Vice President, Technical Operations Services
Robert Tarter - ATO Vice President, Safety Services
Michael Romanowski - Director, NextGen Implementation and Integration Office
Fred Pease - Department of Defense Liaison
Agam Sinha - MITRE Center for Advanced Aviation System Development
Charles Leader - Director, Joint Planning and Development Office
Patrick Forrey - President, National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Tom Brantley - President, Professional Aviation Safety Specialists
NextGen Review Board
The NextGen Review Board provides oversight, status, prioritization, and guidance on existing and proposed NextGen initiatives. The NextGen Review Board offers the opportunity for the entire FAA to have a “big picture” view of the transition to NextGen. This will help all involved understand the interconnections between the various activities and will assist with integration, timely rulemaking, identification of required policy changes and understanding of funding impacts. It assesses funded research and development programs and drives R&D budget plans. The NextGen Review Board provides recommendations to the NextGen Management Board.
Michael Romanowski - Director, NextGen Integration and Implementation Office (co-chair)
Charles Leader - Director, JPDO (co-chair)
John McGraw - Office of Aviation Safety, Flight Standards Service
Ben DeLeon - Office of Airports
Angela Freeman - Office of Regions and Center Operations
Robert Nassif - Office of Budget
Nan Shellabarger - Office of Aviation Policy, Planning and Environment
Luis Ramirez - ATO En Route and Oceanic Services
Rich Jehlen - ATO Systems Operation Services
Raul Trevino - ATO Terminal Services
Jim Eck - ATO Technical Operations
Maria DiPasquantonio - ATO Financial Services
Jim Williams - ATO Operations Planning, System Engineering
Huan Nguyen - ATO Safety Services
Lourdes Maurice - Office of Environment and Energy
John Pyburn - FAA FFRDC, MITRE CAASD
Kris Burnham - JPDO, Portfolio Management
Jay Merkle - JPDO, Chief Architect
Jesse Wijntjes - FAA Chief Architect
Diana Young - Office of Information Services
Gisele Mohler - Director, NextGen Planning Staff
Art Politano - Office of Aviation Safety, Air Traffic Safety Oversight
Dan Murphy - ATO Operations Planning, Performance Analysis
Senior Vice President for NextGen
The FAA's Senior Vice President for NextGen and Operations Planning has primary responsibility for the development and execution of the plan. This organization has three major elements:
- NextGen Integration and Implementation Office, which develops and maintains the NextGen Implementation Plan, will be deeply involved in NextGen system integration, monitoring the progress of NextGen development and implementation, and facilitating key collaboration processes.
- Operations Planning, which manages FAA's research and development, Enterprise Architecture, system engineering, performance modeling, and other key NextGen functions
- Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), whose focus remains on the long-term NextGen vision, and ensures FAA's alignment with partner government agencies and other stakeholders that contribute to the overall NextGen effort.
To realize the NextGen vision, we need proactive and coordinated changes to airports, to air traffic management services, and to the aircraft. FAA's NextGen Implementation Plan is divided into domains representing those three key areas. Each domain may be further divided into Solution Sets, which group related transformative activities.
Airport Development Domain
Though NextGen is often thought of as a series of changes to air traffic systems and operations, meeting aviation's future capacity and efficiency demands will continue to call for improvements to airport infrastructure. NextGen operational changes, particularly to runway separation standards, will allow different development opportunities in the future, like building new runways closer together. Doing so could increase the use of existing airports that are geographically constrained. Both solution sets in this domain include activities to relieve pressure on today's most congested airports, including those in New York and Chicago .
- OEP 35 Airports, which describes airfield improvements under construction or under consideration to the nation's busiest airports, through which 70 percent of passengers flow annually.
- OEP Metropolitan Areas, which focuses on planning improvements for systems of hub and supporting airports in what are expected to be the most congested areas of the country within the next two decades. The intention of this effort is to marry airfield improvements with NextGen operational changes to create the required capacity.
Air Traffic Operations Domain
NextGen calls for a transformation of the way we communicate, navigate, and track flights. More modern tools will allow us to manage air traffic more efficiently, create greater capacity where needed, and offer better access to all users. NextGen's goal is to make U.S. aviation ever safer and more environmentally friendly, while supporting our nation's security objectives. The NextGen Implementation Plan breaks its operational capabilities and supporting policy and standards into seven solution sets within this domain:
- Initiate Trajectory-Based Operations, which focuses primarily on advancements in en route cruise operations, although the effects of the trajectory-based operations will be felt in all phases of flight.
- Increase Arrivals/Departures at High Density Airports, which captures operational capabilities that will improve the capacity, efficiency and safety at the nation's busiest airports and surrounding airspace.
- Increase Flexibility in the Terminal Environment, which includes additional capabilities that will improve performance at a broader range of airports.
- Improve Collaborative Air Traffic Management, which focus on delivering new tools for planning flight operations and managing traffic flows.
- Reduce Weather Impact, which improves the way we access and use weather information.
- Improve Safety, Security and Environmental Performance, which describes a series of initiatives that underpin the delivery of the operational capabilities
- Transform Facilities, which considers the optimal configuration of NAS facilities
Aircraft & Operator Requirements Domain
As the roles and responsibilities of aircraft systems and the operator evolve, maintaining operational safety is a challenging and pervasive objective. This domain will define the performance requirements that aircraft and operators must meet to participate in NextGen. By collating the aircraft- and operator-related expectations of FAA's near-term commitments as well as the mid-term capabilities described in other solution sets, the agency can better assure that required safety and standardization activities are accomplished in a timely manner. As planning matures, this domain will provide sufficient detail on aircraft capabilities that will allow manufacturers and operators to identify related avionics investments and plan a logical migration for their aircraft.
