NextGen's Impact on GA Operators

Industry watchdogs are keeping an eye on the evolution of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), the Federal Aviation Administration's plan to modernize the National Airspace System through 2025, as it might pose accessibility issues for GA operators.

"GAMA remains the strongest advocate for systemwide modernization and transformation to a performance-based National Aviation System that takes advantage of satellite navigation and digital surveillance technology," says Katie Pribyl, GAMA spokeswoman. "But for GA operators, it comes down to a utility and access issue and the details of the modernization plan will spell out how we will fare."

NextGen is being defined by the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), a group advised by other government agencies, including NASA and the FAA. Woven into the FAA Reauthorization Bill, NextGen represents a roadmap of new technologies and procedures to support greater capacity and less congestion, according to the FAA. Performance-based navigation (PBN) is a key tenet.

Though GA accounts for a mere six percent of the operations at the 35 busiest airports in the United States and has minimal impact on delays and congestion experienced by airlines operating from them, GA operators are likely the first group to get locked out of airspace when commercial airlines saturate it, according to GAMA.