The FAA has failed to make critical decisions and set clear goals for the development of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), according to a new government report. These failures threaten to stall the modernization of the nation’s aviation system, according to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Republicans.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) prepared the report at the request of U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), the Committee’s Republican leader, and U.S. Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), the Aviation Subcommittee top Republican.
According to the GAO, “We recently reported that FAA has yet to make many key decisions required to shape and determine the future direction of NextGen. We identified key decisions, such as how to provide incentives for operators to install avionics equipment on their aircraft where a clear business case is not evident, how environmental reviews can be expedited, and how much additional airport capacity will be needed. Absent decisions in these key areas, it is unclear how or whether FAA can achieve its plans for implementing NextGen capabilities.”
“The FAA’s failure to set clear goals and make necessary decisions jeopardizes this complex, critical air transportation modernization effort and threatens to waste taxpayers’ money,” Mica said. “FAA cannot effectively work towards NextGen with a partially developed plan and risk the United States’ international position as a leader in aviation. If I am chairman of the committee in the next Congress, I plan to conduct rigorous oversight of the NextGen program and hold FAA accountable for taking the steps necessary to ensure its success.”
Petri said, “We are spending about $1 billion a year on this important initiative that is critical to the growth of our economy, improving safety, and for our environment. Yet, according to the GAO, the long-term goals remain unidentified and, even if they were identified, the FAA has as yet to develop the tools necessary to measure the effectiveness of their efforts in delivering NextGen. Preparing for the future of air traffic control is a basic, vital function of the FAA, and the agency needs to get on with it. This is too important and too costly to not get it right.”
The GAO reported that FAA and top NextGen planners have made no clear progress in establishing specific performance goals, metrics or milestones. Although FAA estimates that implementing NextGen capabilities will reduce aviation delays by 21% and save more than 1.4 billion gallons of fuel, these outcomes are not established goals and it is unclear how NextGen capabilities will help lead to their achievement.
The GAO warns that that the lack of goals and metrics could lead FAA to develop and implement capabilities that fail to produce desired results. The FAA will need to show that the necessary avionics equipage costs will be justified by safety and efficiency benefits to airspace users.
Dear GAN:
First of all, let me thank Janice Wood for bringing this issue to the attention to everyone in the aviation industry who will be effected by this technological change.
This article say’s it all. Those who are supposed to be “facilitating” the next generation of “aviation progress” in this country (FAA), have “failed miserably” to “properly plan” for its progress and how they intend to get there. It took those who are about to come to power in the House of Representatives (the new Republican Congress) to “bring this fact to light”, because those who have controlled these committees since 2007 refused (or were too lazy and too stupid) to do their jobs!
I am reminded of the last time the FAA (under the leadership of David Hinson, an “inept” Clinton appointee) attempted to “provide” for the next generation of aviation and Air Traffic Control in 1993. At that time, the “re-generation” of the Air Traffic Control System, was already long overdue, as it was overburdened and antiquated, because the country was still trying desperately to recover from the bankruptcy of our government in 1980, after the deregulation of the airlines! It cost the taxpayers $2.5 billion dollars from the 1993/94 budgets (that’s $50 billion in today’s dollars) and the program was finally scraped as unusable! Why was it unusable? Because those who were tasked with “making it work”, didn’t have the expertise and refused to listen to those who did! The Congress of that period was the same people who are in power at this moment and are about to loose their jobs in January, because of voter anger in the November elections!
The Air Traffic Control system has been “limping along” and loosing ground, ever since the “unnecessary failure” of “next generation Air Traffic Control” in 1993/94. Why? Because the very same Members of Congress, who “chaired” these same committees in the House in 1993/94, were supposed to oversee that process, but didn’t do their jobs, just as they haven’t these past four years!
Make no mistake about it…”next Generation” is all about Air Traffic Control! Yes, if it were to work “as promised”, it would provide a better quality of service to the users…but the same could be said of air transportation security under the TSA and we have all seen the “dismal failure” this has become (“You want to travel by air?…Surrender your civil rights”!)! That’s progress and security? I don’t think so!
Now, enter the “new Congress” in January 2011 and their new Chairman is asking some “tough questions” (because it’s his job!) and he isn’t getting any answers! So why haven’t those who now control those committees been asking “tough questions” for the last 4 years? Because they have been busy “playing partisan politics”, just drawing their paychecks and doing nothing to ensure that the “proposed system” will even work after users have “been required” to invest billions of dollars in an untested and unproven system, that touts as yet unfounded promises, just like 1993/94!
I can only say “Thank God”, for those like Congressmen Mica and Petri, who have the responsibility they were elected to provide and the interest of the American public and the aviation industry at heart! It’s abundantly clear that those exiting these same offices in January, after 4 years, didn’t have it, as all they did was demand taxpayer funds to provide for a possible “pig-in-a-poke”, with no evidence it would even work or when!
PS: I cannot blame the present Administrator of the FAA for this problem, as he has only been in office for a year and a half and the “Next-Gen” program preceded him. Add to that, the fact that he inherited an agency that was completely out of control and completely without direction and it has been a “monumental task” to “just clean up the mess”, with no time to “ensure” all programs previously established, were doing what they were supposed to!