Travelers who embrace cheap traveloptions, such as cheapairplane tickets, cheap vacation packages, and discounttravel deals, will be pleased to learn that the U.S. airtraffic control system is being updated to accommodate an anticipated surge inair travel, reduce fuel consumption and improve safety and efficiency.
Unfortunately after a decade of work and billions ofdollars spent the ambitious update being called NextGen has encountered aseries of unforeseen difficulties.
The new approach to air traffic control was supposed tohandle three times as many planes with 50 percent fewer air traffic controllersby 2025. Planes would be able to flymore directly to their destinations using GPS technology instead of flyingindirect routes in order to stay within the range of ground radar stations.
For the first time ever pilots were going to be able to seeon cockpit displays where they were in relation to other planes which in turnwould allow planes to fly safely closer together. Some of the responsibility for maintaining asafe separation of planes was going to shift from controllers to pilots.
A series of unexpected events have occurred:
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Anticipatedincreased demand for air space has not materialized. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)prediction of one billion passengers flying annually by 2014 has now beenpushed back to 2027.
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Airtraffic operations, including takeoffs, landings, and other procedures havefallen 26 percent from their peak in 2,000 even as chronic congestions at somelarge airports continues to slow flights across the country.
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Newlanding procedures are impossible for some planes to follow. Aircraft tracing software has misidentifiedplanes.
Key initiatives continue to experience unanticipateddelays.
The FAA lacks an executable plan for bringing NextGenfully online, according to a government watchdog.
Airlines, frustrated that they have yet to see promisedmoney saving benefits, want better results before spending more to equip theirplanes to use NextGen.
With the government facing automatic spending cuts, manyfear that the program may face funding cuts.
Recently a government industry advisory committeerecommended that the FAA should concentrate on just 11 NextGen initiatives thatare ready or nearly ready to come online. This group suggested that the rest of the 150 NextGen initiatives beplaced on hold.
Originally NextGen was expected to cost $40 billion thatwould be funded between the government and the industry and be completed by2025. Now there is an internal FAAreport that forecasts NextGen will cost three times the original estimate andtake 10 years longer to complete.
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