ATC
FAA Reports Progress on NextGen Implementation

It’s clear that the final release of the FAA’s Authorization Act has given a new fillip to the agency’s NextGen implementation activity. The 2012 Plan, released in March, has a much more upbeat flavor than its 2011 predecessor, which essentially looked backwards at accomplishments in 2010, when most activities were still in their early stages. Back then, the potential future benefits of NextGen were just that–potential. Now, the 2012 Plan reports on significant progress in operational implementations over the previous 12 months, when users started to obtain actual benefits, and the plan will doubtless provide more community confidence that NextGen is going to do all–or at least most–of the things it originally promised.