NextGen for Airports: A Primer (2016)

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2 NextGen began in 2003 when its principles were included in the Vision 100 Century of Aviation Reau- thorization Act. Its goals were to:1 1 Improve the level of safety, security, efficiency, quality, and affordability of the National Airspace System (NAS) and aviation services; 2 Take advantage of data from emerging ground-based and space-based communications, naviga- tion, and surveillance technologies; 3 Integrate data streams from multiple agencies and sources to enable situational awareness and seamless global operations for all appropriate users of the system, including users responsible for civil aviation, homeland security, and national security; 4 Leverage investments in civil aviation, homeland security, and national security and build upon current air traffic management and infrastructure initiatives to meet system performance require- ments for all system users; What Is NextGen?

3 5 Be scalable to accommodate and encourage substantial growth in domestic and international transportation and anticipate and accommodate continuing technology upgrades and advances; 6 Accommodate a wide range of aircraft operations, including airlines, air taxis, helicopters, general aviation, and unmanned aerial vehicles; and 7 Take into consideration, to the greatest extent practicable, design of airport approach and depar- ture flight paths to reduce exposure of noise and emissions pollution on affected residents. The fundamental concept of NextGen is to improve performance and reduce costs by replacement of ground-based navigation and radar surveillance infrastructure with satellite-based navigation and surveillance, along with upgrades in automation and communications to improve ground control and flight operations. Events have shown that some ground infrastructure will continue to be required, and that many specific technologies and procedures are needed to implement NextGen operational improvements in the complex NAS. Through the years the FAA has identified additional programs as part of NextGen, with the result that, today, NextGen includes a broad array of ground-, airborne-, and satellite-based programs, with enabling technologies, rules, and procedures. The current focus of the FAA is on the set of near-term high-priority NextGen programs that have been defined by the FAA Govern- ment/Industry RTCA NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC), as indi- cated in the ACRP Report 150: NextGen for Airports series Resources for Airports volume. Airport directors and senior executives should be aware that longer term capabilities may offer increased capaci- ty for closely spaced parallel runways and reductions in the dimen- sional standards for independent operations on parallel runways. While NextGen is a federally led program, and most NextGen tech- nology programs and operational improvements have been initiated by the FAA, in some cases airline operators and airports have pushed for im- provements that the FAA has later implemented. These experiences suggest that airport directors, who understand the improvements new technologies and procedures could bring to their airports, are in a good position to request the FAA to initiate such NextGen-enabled operational improvements. Some improvements, relying as they do on on-board avionics and flight training, require cooperation with their local aircraft operators and air traf- fic control (ATC) representatives. It is important to realize that traditional relationships between airport operators and their local airport district office (ADO) or regional Office of Airports, may not be sufficient to inform airports of NextGen potential or planned procedures that affect, or could affect, their airports. Given that NextGen is a dynamic program, technologies are added when they show promise and removed when they are superseded by a newer technology or found inadequate to their original pur- pose. To keep up with changes, the FAA website NextGen Resources, https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/ library/ is especially useful and contains links to information on the latest NextGen infrastructure tech- nologies, the NextGen Implementation Plan, and other NextGen-related documents. Included is a link, “NextGen for Airports,” https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/qanda/airports/, which contains airport-related questions and answers, and a further link to a “NextGen for Airports Brochure.” The query also brings up the “NextGen Priorities” site, https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/snapshots/priorities/ that includes status information on NextGen progress. Current projects with the most promise for airports over the next decade are described in the next section. What Is NextGen?