What's New in NextGen: September 2011 Posting

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Implementing NextGen initiatives involves complex activities ranging from concept development to deployments of capabilities in the National Airspace System (NAS).

Delta, US Airways and Southwest are using new Optimum Profile Descents (OPD) procedures at Charleston International Airport to reduce noise, emissions and fuel costs. The FAA and the Charleston RNAV Implementation Working Group developed eight area navigation (RNAV) Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARS) over the past three years. Six of these STARS have OPD vertical profiles. The US Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC) is also using OPD procedures at the joint use civil/military airport. Charleston is the AMCs largest C-17 base and the second largest cargo center in the US with worldwide operations. OPDs are estimated to be saving the Air Force millions of dollars in fuel costs annually.

Since June, 49 ADS-B radio stations became operational, bringing the total to 329. Additionally, 20 new service volumes were added in advisory services. A service volume is a defined volume of airspace in the NAS within which a set of ADS-B services are provided and the required performance for the set of services is achieved.

• 1 Surface service volume
• 4 En Route service volumes
• 15 Terminal service volumes

More specific localized capabilities enabled by ADS-B and a description of the three types of service volumes can be found on our website.

Satellite-based procedures are updated every eight weeks and are real implementations that currently provide benefits. These implemented procedures and identification of other implementations can be seen on our interactive maps at www.faa.gov/nextgen/flashmap/.