Aviation Congestion

Air Traffic Modernization

The Department expects that over a billion passengers will be flying on U.S. commercial carriers by 2015. Today's air traffic management system is incapable of meeting the challenges presented by projected air travel demands of the future. New technologies and procedures are needed to address this challenge. The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) will accommodate 2 to 3 times the current traffic levels by shifting from 40-year old ground-based, voice-driven technology to satellite-based, cockpit-to-cockpit enabled air traffic management. NextGen is designed to be flexible to take advantage of even newer and better technologies as they become available.

To address capacity in the medium to long term, DOT is working full-time to develop and implement the NextGen technology so the air traffic system will be able to accommodate more traffic, more efficiently. We need to move forward to implement NextGen, starting with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast and Airport Surface Detection Equipment-Model X, which has been moved up a year earlier than originally planned at JFK. The FAA Web site has more information concerning NextGen.