NextGen Mid-Term Implementation Task Force, better known as RTCA Task Force 5, completed its work and delivered its final report to the FAA on September 9. On September 15, RTCA put on an all-day conference at a local hotel in Washington, DC to discuss the TF5 recommendations.

In a nutshell, the TF5 recommendations identify five specific problem areas in the system and two cross-cutting areas that are in greatest need of attention. The five specific areas are: surface, runway access, metroplexes, cruise efficiency and access to the NAS. The two cross-cutting areas are data communications and integration of ATM services. If you want information on the TF5 recommendations, the best place to go is the RTCA website. I found it amusing that several people I talked to at the meeting complained about how, after listening to the speakers all day long, still had no inkling of what was in the report. If they came to the conference hoping to avoid reading the report, they left disappointed. Had they read the report, the discussions at the conference pretty clearly marked the path forward.

The FAA has committed to implementing the TF5 recommendations. How it exactly does this remains to be seen. FAA’s COO, Hank Krakowski, in response to a question said that the FAA’s detailed response would be available by December. But, without doubt, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt and Krakowski fully committed the agency to implement the recommendations.

Hank Krakowski made an interesting, new revelation during his closing remarks. He talked about what appears to be a major reorganization of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization. He said it’s been two years in the works, which means he’s been working on it since he arrived. He said he is going to restructure to drive the ATO together to be one operations organization, not multiple organizations consisting of terminal, en route, sysops and tech ops. He wants to get away from a structure focused on function and move to one that is organized around mission. This change appears to be fundamentally consistent with one of the TF5 cross-cutting recommendations that address integration of ATM services. We’ve been seeing the need to better integrate the system from gate to gate for several years and have been working toward that end with several key projects. So, despite not knowing the details of how things will be restructured, the change resonates well. The reality is that this is a major restructuring. We are talking about organizations that have existed for perhaps fifty years. We are talking about something in excess of 25,000 people within the FAA, not to mention those outside the FAA that are linked to it. This will be huge. This will be difficult. It will be disruptive (there’s that word again). It’s interesting that Krakowski chose this event to make public this change. Can’t help but think that this disruption is intended to facilitate the changes required by NextGen.

When you work on the inside of RTCA TF5 as we have, you tend to get swept away with the idea that things are finally going to be different and that starting today things are finally going to begin moving forward at a faster rate. After all, we’re all preaching to the choir. At the conference, the luncheon speaker was Gael Sullivan. He’s the senior Democratic Staffer on the Senate authorizing committee, the Commerce, Science and Technology Committee. Sullivan has been on the Hill for 18 years. He previously worked on the House side on key authorizing committees, the House Transportation Committee and Aviation Subcommittee. He knows our part of government and he knows our industry inside and out. It was the first reality check of the day for me. I said to myself, oh yeah, we’re in Washington. Sullivan talked about all of the budgetary pressures facing the country: health care, economic recovery, the deficit, financial regulation, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. NextGen has to compete with these needs for funding. Later in the day, Steve Brown, SVP for Operations at NBAA and former FAA insider, talked about the need for greater public attention on the problems NextGen is trying to fix. Brown pointed out that aviation efficiency problems are rarely on the front page of newspapers. If the public is not focused on it, you can bet members on the Hill aren’t either. We as an industry need to get organized to raise the awareness of the public and our representatives on the Hill. But, the next question is who will step up to get us organized? Who in our industry can serve in that role as a trusted agent of all of the stakeholders? Clearly there are some capable organizations that have too many axes to grind for others to accept. I think of organizations like the Aerospace Industries Association as one of those that is respected and trusted by most and has the ear of Congress. Perhaps there are others.

One of the most compelling presentations at the conference was by Captain Ken Speir of Delta. He’s Delta’s Chief Pilot in Atlanta. Speir still flies regular rotations and decided to chronicle his latest rotation that he flew a couple of days earlier. This is no special flight schedule rotation according to Speir. It was just a very normal one almost like every other. Yet, as he described his itinerary in great detail – taxi out delays, detours here and detours there – the mounting problems were horrendous. Solutions to several of the problems seemed to be within today’s grasp. The need for change was indeed compelling. The public needs to hear more about these kinds of problems that affect nearly every flight. The cost of these problems needs to be translated into a form that the public can relate to. I think it was Steve Brown who said that we need to relate TF5 recommendations to these flight rotation problems to see how much improvement we might expect.

The RTCA TF5 recommendations are compelling. But, so is dependable funding from Congress. What Congress cares most about is public opinion. And, right now, we have a need, but we have no plan to address public opinion. As an industry, we need to get going on this front too if we’re going to make NextGen a reality.