NextGen Partnerships

NextGen is at a critical juncture. As early NextGen concepts transition into operational realities, it is more important than ever that the aviation community join with the FAA as full partners in shaping the next generation air transportation system. Particularly in the areas of equipage and benefits, the FAA and industry must see eye-to-eye.

In our current economic environment, operators must have a firm understanding of both requirements and benefits in order to make investment decisions regarding avionics and training. Advancements that can have an immediate positive impact on the NAS, such as those that save fuel and reduce delays, must be accelerated.

It is with a keen awareness of these realities that the FAA moves forward with the next major phase of NextGen planning, which will rely heavily on input from the agency’s government and industry partners. More than anything else, the NextGen Implementation Plan is a promise to those partners, enabling them to plan their future operations with confidence that the agency will provide specific new capabilities by specific dates.

Key Stakeholder Groups

The FAA worked with key stakeholder groups to develop our current mid-term operational capability definitions. These stakeholders include:

• RTCA, Inc., which develops consensus-based recommendations for FAA regarding communications, navigation, surveillance, and air traffic management system issues. RTCA is forming a NextGen Implementation Task Force to more closely examine mid-term equipage and benefits. The task force’s recommendations are due this fall.
• Performance-Based Operations Aviation Rulemaking Committee (PARC), which is a forum for the U.S. aviation community to discuss, prioritize, and resolve issues; provide direction for the U.S. flight operations criteria; and produce U.S. consensus positions for global harmonization.
• Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee (REDAC), which ensures that the FAA emphasizes the right types of research at each critical point along the way.
• JPDO Working Groups, which are co-chaired by government and industry leads. These groups are expected to continue focusing on targeted tasks that are fundamental to future planning.
  

NextGen Agreements

The FAA has entered into a series of industry and government agreements aimed at accelerating the deployment of NextGen. Some of the more recent agreements include:

• A partnership with the Helicopter Association International, platform/helicopter companies, platform owners and helicopter operators will introduce initial satellite surveillance coverage to the Gulf of Mexico in November 2009. The absence of radar coverage over water severely restricts capacity due to the separation procedures needed to maintain safety. Under the agreement, valued at $100 million, the FAA will install ADS-B ground stations on oil platforms, the platform owners will provide space for these ground stations, and the helicopter operators will provide transportation to and from the platforms and equip some of their fleet with ADS-B avionics.
• An agreement with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., will assist with the development and demonstration of SWIM
• An agreement with NetJets, a Columbus, Ohio-based air service provider, will allow a number of NextGen technologies and procedures to be tested on a fleet of about 600 aircraft. Under the agreement, signed on Dec. 5, 2008, NetJets will focus on RNAV and RNP, ADS-B, Wide Area Augmentation System and Data Communications. The company will provide the FAA with real-time data, allowing the agency to validate performance requirements. This will also help the FAA identify various costs and benefits associated with NextGen implementation
• An agreement with a group called the Alliance for Sustainable Air Transportation will accelerate and promote the early use of NextGen in order to lower carbon, noise and cost footprints. Alliance members include the states of Florida and California, General Dynamics and ERA Corporation.
• An Aviation Research and Technology Park is being established near the FAA’s Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J., to provide a central location for partners in academia, industry, and other state and federal government agencies to work on NextGen under a Memorandum of Agreement.

The FAA also continues to work with its Centers of Excellence and other universities to educate the workforce that will ultimately build NextGen. The agency also has established the Commercial Alternative Aviation Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), a partnership between airlines, manufacturers, airports, petroleum firms, and other federal agencies to accelerate the use of alternative fuels for commercial aviation.

The agency further continues to partner with domestic and foreign air carriers, airports, industry, and academic institutions to conduct real-world demonstrations of NextGen concepts, technology, and procedures.

International Partnerships

Two prominent examples of those partnerships include the Atlantic Interoperabiilty Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE) and the Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE).

Announced in the summer of 2007, AIRE is a scientific and research venture between the FAA, the European Commission (EC), and industry partners focused on upgrading air traffic control standards and procedures for trans-Atlantic flights. A 4-D Trajectory AIRE demonstration flight conducted in 2008 resulted in 330 gallons of fuel saved and a 6,700 pound reduction in carbon emissions.

Formalized in early 2008, ASPIRE serves as AIRE’s Pacific Ocean counterpart. An “ideal” Air New Zealand demonstration flight from Aukland, New Zealand to San Francisco rendered a four-percent reduction in fuel burn, which translates into an 11 metric ton reduction in carbon emissions.