Next Generation Air Transportation System

[1][2] Modernization goals include using new technologies and procedures to increase NAS safety, efficiency, capacity, access, flexibility, predictability, and resilience while reducing aviation's environmental impact.

The FAA concept of operations was consistent with the JPDO's broad set of objectives, including maintaining safety and security, increasing capacity and efficiency, ensuring access to airspace and airports, and mitigating environmental impacts.

NextGen progress involved expanded research and development capability, participation by the aviation industry and international partners, and support by the White House and Congress, which are highlighted in this section.

Boeing, General Dynamics, and ITT Corp. received FAA contracts worth up to $4.4 billion to demonstrate on a large scale how NextGen concepts, procedures, and technologies could be integrated into the current NAS.

[35] Using Data Comm, tower air traffic controllers can send pilots of equipped aircraft departure clearance instructions to read, accept, and load into their flight management system with the push of a button.

In response to recommendations from the aviation community through RTCA's NextGen Mid-Term Implementation Task Force, the FAA began integrating PBN procedures to improve air traffic flow for 11 metroplexes, which are metropolitan areas where crowded airspace serve the needs of multiple airports.

[86] A software enhancement for these two capabilities called Airport Taxi Arrival Prediction was added to warn air traffic controllers when pilots are lined up to land on a taxiway instead of their assigned runway.

[99] The more advanced Airborne Collision Avoidance System X[100] will support access to closely spaced runways in almost all weather conditions, flight deck interval management (IM), and separation similar to traditional visual operations with fewer nuisance alerts.

[133][134] The FAA and NASA in 2021 finished research and testing on a surface scheduling capability that calculates gate pushbacks at busy hub airports so that each airplane can roll directly to the runway and take off.

The FAA reduces intensive manual processes that limit controllers' ability to safely handle airline requests for more efficient tracks or altitudes over long oceanic routes.

The most extensive use of SWIM data was supporting improved awareness of operating conditions and flight status, especially on the airport surface and in situations when aircraft transition from contact with one air traffic control center to the next.

MRO advancements improve access to closely spaced parallel runways to enable more departure and arrival operations during instrument meteorological conditions, which increase efficiency and capacity while reducing flight delays.

Enhanced Low Visibility Operations (ELVO) was a low-cost infrastructure program to reduce minimum ceilings and runway visual range through a combination of ground equipment and navigation procedures.

[189] The agency completed construction of a test bed at the William J. Hughes Technical Center and Atlantic City International Airport in 2024 to better understand the full capabilities of a remote tower system.

The FAA Office of Environment and Energy Research and Development is working to reduce air and water pollution, carbon dioxide emissions that may affect climate, and noise that can disturb residents near airports.

[197] The Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions, and Noise (CLEEN) program is a public-private partnership under NextGen to accelerate development and commercial deployment of more-efficient technologies and sustainable alternative fuels.

[202][203] The FAA's efforts helped United Airlines use an alternative jet fuel made from hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids for its daily operations at Los Angeles starting in 2016.

Recurrent air traffic control training will need to evolve from a focus on automation manipulation to one that ensures all participants in the NAS understand the changing operational concepts and their implications for how services are provided.

[249][250] AAM is intended to safely and efficiently integrate highly or fully automated new aircraft into the NAS and the aviation ecosystem with or without a pilot aboard while cruising at altitudes between 2,000 and 5,000 feet mean sea level.

[252] The agency issued a rule in October 2024 for the training and qualifications required for flight instructors and pilots to fly a new category of civil aircraft known as powered lift, which will accommodate AAM operations.

Drones in airspace up to 400 feet above ground level can operate under UAS traffic management (UTM), where they meet established performance requirements and cooperatively separate through shared situational awareness.

The program will also continue to develop ongoing standards to expand collision avoidance research and requirements for a new category of users in the UTM environment to ensure future systems interoperate within the NAS.

The FAA's supporting services for Remote ID follow a model of data exchange with internal users and other government agencies similar to LAANC called DISCVR,  or Drone Information for Safety, Compliance, Verification, and Reporting.

Among the metropolitan areas affected are Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, and Washington, D.C.[335][336][337][338][339][340][341][342] Some community members believe efforts to reduce noise over homes should have been predicted before NextGen navigation changes went into effect, and that the decisions were a complete failure on the part of the FAA and its former administrator, Michael Huerta.

Significant work remained to deploy new Performance Based Navigation (PBN) procedures to capture airspace efficiencies and boost arrival rates, develop surface technologies to enhance capacity on crowded runways and taxiways, and install en route Data Comm.

[348][349] To continue progress toward major program milestones, the FAA needed to resolve key risk areas that materially affected the delivery, capabilities, and benefits of modernization priorities.

[352] In a report from Lou E. Dixon, former Department of Transportation principal assistant inspector general for auditing and evaluation, the FAA's major acquisitions since the creation of the Air Traffic Organization continue to lack in performance.

Notwithstanding reforms, several underlying and systemic issues — including overambitious plans, shifting requirements, software development problems, ineffective contract and program management, and unreliable cost and schedule estimates — affect the FAA's ability to introduce new technologies and capabilities that are critical to transitioning to NextGen.

"[359] After a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet over the Potomac River by Washington Reagan National Airport January 29, 2025, President Trump in his second term of office expressed his desire to build a "great" new air traffic control system for less money than has been spent on NextGen.

[366][367] Criticism of NextGen led to a renewed drive to reform air traffic control, supported by the Trump Administration, by moving this function from the government to a not-for-profit, independent entity managed by a professional board of directors.