Centerlines - June 2008 - (Page 11)

GUEST COLUMN Technology-Enhanced Airports Have A Key Role In Implementing NextGen A Q U I C K G L A N C E at news leading up to this summer’s travel season, predicting mounting delays in a system stretched to capacity, offers unequivocal proof that NextGen is needed. For the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), NextGen is a transformation of national airspace system operations, with a greater dependence on aircraft performance. But just as fundamental to NextGen is the part of the system most familiar to the traveling public, the airport. NextGen looks not only at improvements that could be made at an individual airport but at the secondary and reliever airports that surround them. In addition to constructing new airport infrastructure, this list of potential improvements includes near-term options such as area navigation (RNAV)/required navigation performance (RNP) procedures and wide area augmentation system functionality with localizer performance with vertical guidance (WAAS LPV) approaches. While the immediate goal would be to improve access to existing runways, future performance-based aircraft operations may ultimately permit reduced separation standards, providing more ﬂexibility in future airport design by allowing airports to build runways closer together than today. This means that airports currently NEXTGEN looks not only at improvements that could be made at an individual airport but at the combined benefits of a system of airports. combined beneﬁts of a system of airports. There are more than 20,000 airports in the United States and more than 3,400 of these are eligible for federal improvement funds. How can we best leverage this system, for the beneﬁt of the local community and the country as a whole? FAA’s NextGen concepts for airports and the terminal environment are deﬁned in the Operational Evolution Partnership (OEP). In addition to its traditional 35 airports, OEP now focuses on 15 metropolitan areas that will be signiﬁcantly capacity constrained by 2025 without improvements. These metro areas were identiﬁed through analysis in FAA’s Capacity Needs in the Airspace System report. Working with the airport community, FAA is evaluating the kinds of improvements that would beneﬁt a given metro area if made either to its OEP airports or the system of for airline operations thus reducing incursions and improving safety. NextGen also seeks to improve aviation’s “green” proﬁle, introducing environmental management as a core FAA business function. At a local level, environment-friendly improvements are imperative for airports whose neighbors are increasingly sensitive to the impact of noise and emissions. Today, RNAV at Atlanta has so far helped airlines save 4 million gallons of fuel. That’s a reduction of 37,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. NextGen performance-based procedures like continuous descent arrivals move us further down this path. While FAA is especially focused on the 15 metro areas in the OEP, where future congestion could constrain the system as a whole, many other airports would be candidates for NextGen improvements. The full scope of NextGen capabilities will be deﬁned in OEP Version 2, which will be published on June 30. V I C T OR I A C O X constrained by geography and enviS E N IOR V I C E P R E S I DE N T F OR ronmental impacts would be able to place new infrastructure within their N E X T GE N A N D OP E R AT I O N S existing footprint. PL A N N I NG Looking toward the mid-term FA A’S A I R T R A F F IC ORGA N I Z AT ION (2012-18), NextGen looks, for example, at enhancing surface manWith newly expanded responsibilities, agement. Building on systems like Victoria Cox is the FAA executive charged airport surface detection equipment, with planning and integrating NextGen, model X, or ASDE-X and runway which now includes Joint Planning and status lights, which are being ﬁelded Development Ofﬁce. today, and emerging systems like automatic dependent sur• Operational Evolution Partnership veillance-broadwww.faa.gov/programs/oep cast (ADS-B), the • Capacity Needs in the Airspace System, 2007-2025 aim would be to www.faa.gov/airports_airtrafﬁc/airports/resources/ increase situpublications/reports/#capacity ational awareness • OEP’S 15 Metro Areas for every aircraft http://63.110.92.28/aciwebsite/docs/publications/misc/ operating on airports%20table.pdf the airﬁeld, for controllers and WEBLINKS www.aci-na.org | CENTERLINES 11 http://www.faa.gov/programs/oep http://www.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/airports/resources/publications/reports/#capacity http://63.110.92.28/aciwebsite/docs/publications/misc/airports%20table.pdf http://www.aci-na.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Centerlines - June 2008

Centerlines - June 2008 Contents President’s Message Canadian Airports Associates’ Corner Guest Column On the Hill and On the Stump Policy Center Cover Story: Hotter Than Last July? Revenue Arena: Building Non-Aeronautical Revenue Environment: Wind Turbines at Boston Logan Passenger Focus: Des Moines Deals with the Iowa Caucuses Safety and Security: Inline Explosives Detection Systems Air Service Recruitment: Holding on to What You’ve Got On Management: Managing Capital Programs Now Underway Grand Opening Conference Previews and Reviews New Members Index of Advertisers/Advertiser.com Box Scores

Centerlines - June 2008

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