ATW has some good first-hand reporting from the Air Traffic Controllers Association Conference and Exposition:
Executive Director-SESAR Joint Undertaking Patrick Ky and FAA Air Traffic Organization COO Hank Krakowski argued that it is critical to move forward with developing the SESAR and NextGen ATC systems even as traffic growth is slowing and near-term funding may be limited, and pushed for greater transatlantic cooperation.
“We really need to have a common set of equipment,” Ky explained. “It will be difficult because we each tend to focus on our own issues. . .but especially in a time of economic uncertainty it doesn’t make sense to duplicate resources.” He said common technological development should expand even further, calling on ICAO to play an “important role” to “make sure that what is being agreed to [regarding] SESAR and NextGen can be agreed upon globally.” [..]
But US Air Transport Assn. President and CEO Jim May cautioned that “to think that there’s going to be a huge contribution to the [FAA] general fund [to fund NextGen initiatives near-term] is a bit of a myth. We’ve got to find creative, innovative ways to incentivize people to equip [aircraft] and get this process started.”
