The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is implementing the Next-Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) incrementally and has taken actions to address challenges to its implementation, according to a recent report published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Due to the cost, complexity, and length of the NextGen project, GAO was tasked by Congress to review facets of the project’s implementation efforts including how the FAA has implemented NextGen, what challenges remain, and how the FAA might mitigate some of those challenges.
In developing its report, GAO interviewed a “non-generalizable sample of 34 U.S. aviation industry stakeholders including airlines, airports, aviation experts and research organizations in order to gain a better understanding of the NextGen system and challenges that persist.
The report found that the FAA has taken steps to address issues seen with limited stakeholder inclusion, which delayed NextGen’s implementation, by establishing groups of industry stakeholders and government officials that work together to develop the system’s implementation priorities.
According to GAO, the FAA plans to deploy improvements in all facets of the NextGen system including communications, navigation, surveillance, automation, and weather by 2025.
While specific NextGen programs have changed over time, the administration’s cost estimates through 2030 for the FAA and the industry were $20.6 billion and $15.1 billion, respectively. Both figures were within range of 2007 cost estimates.
The report also found that the FAA faces some uncertainties regarding future funding including whether aircraft owners equip their aircraft to use NextGen improvements, potential air traffic control restructuring, leadership stability, and cybersecurity issues. To address those issues, the FAA recently adopted an enterprise risk management approach to help it identify and mitigate current and future risk that could jeopardize NextGen’s implementation.
GAO made no recommendations in its report.