NextGen Implementation Plan
Frequently Asked Questions
What is FAA’s NextGen Implementation Plan?
FAA’s NextGen Implementation Plan defines this agency’s path to NextGen. The NextGen Implementation Plan contains firm, fully-funded commitments to new operational capabilities, new airport infrastructure, and improvements to safety, security, and environmental performance. The plan’s management process ensures these will be delivered by a specific near-term dates. The FAA and its partners are also undertaking research, policy and requirements development, and other activities, to assess the feasibility and benefits of additional proposed system changes that could be delivered in the mid-term (2012-2018). The goal of this plan is to turn these proposals into commitments, and to guide them into use.
The NextGen Implementation Plan was formerly called the Operational Evolution Partnership. Its name changes with this version to clarify its purpose.
What is NextGen?
NextGen is a wide ranging transformation of the entire national air transportation system — not just certain pieces of it — to meet future demands and avoid gridlock in the sky and in the airports. It moves away from ground-based surveillance and navigation to new and more dynamic satellite-based systems. Technologies and activities that support this transformation are currently part of the FAA’s investment portfolio and represent a step beyond our legacy modernization programs. These new capabilities and the highly interdependent technologies that support them will change the way the system operates, reduce congestion, and improve the passenger experience. This multi-agency initiative is led by the JPDO.
What will happen if NextGen is not implemented?
Without NextGen there will be gridlock in the skies. By 2022, FAA estimates that this failure would cost the U.S. economy $22 billion annually in lost economic activity. That number grows to more than $40 billion by 2033 if the air transportation system is not transformed. Even as early as 2015 FAA simulation shows that without some of the initial elements of NextGen aviation delays will be far greater than those today.
Who developed the NextGen Implementation Plan?
The NextGen Implementation Plan is an FAA-wide document, overseen by our Senior Vice President for NextGen and Operations Planning. Its content is validated by the NextGen Review Board and approved by the NextGen Management Board, which is chaired by FAA’s Deputy Administrator.
