The National Airspace System handles almost 50,000 flights per day and more than 700 million passengers per year. Historically, steadily increasing levels of air traffic have resulted in increasing delays. While the current demand for air travel is down, it is expected to return, which will require better air traffic management to reduce congestion and decrease delays. To meet this anticipated demand, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is developing the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) to replace the current ground-based air traffic control system with a satellite-based system. FAAs goal for NextGento create a system that will handle up to three times more air traffic and reduce FAA operating costsis ambitious and involves multibillion-dollar investments from both the Government and the airline industry. Since the effort began in 2005, we have repeatedly reported on the cost and schedule risks and operational and management challenges NextGen faces. These concerns prompted us to identify NextGen as one of the Departments top management challenges. The Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Subcommittee on Aviation requested that we examine FAAs progress in transitioning to NextGen. This report provides the results of our review.


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    Title :

    Timely Actions Needed to Advance the Next Generation Air Transportation System


    Publication date :

    2010


    Size :

    33 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English