At this week’s Aviation Subcommittee hearing on NextGen, the FAA’s Vicky Cox laid out her views on what her agency has accomplished as well as the state of current initiatives. The testimony is fairly lengthy; here two brief excerpts:
A year ago, we received several recommendations from varied sources about how we should deliver NextGen. The Senior Policy Committee of the JPDO asked us to accelerate NextGen, to shift from concept development to execution. Stakeholders continually asked for a single point of accountability for NextGen. Industry wanted more focused oversight by FAA of JPDO deliverables; and most experts recognized that the Air Traffic Organization (ATO), as the operator of the national airspace system, has ultimate responsibility and accountability for NextGen implementation in that system.
In response to these recommendations, the NextGen and Operations Planning Organization, under my leadership as a Senior Vice President in the Air Traffic Organization, was made accountable for delivering NextGen to the National Airspace System, the NAS. I am responsible for implementation of all elements of NextGen and have authority over all matters related to FAA NextGen research, technology development, acquisition, integration, and implementation including allocation within the FAA of NextGen budgets.
[..] As you can see, we are working steadily and carefully to bring NextGen to fruition. Our programs are currently on track, our partnerships are strong. We have mapped out our course and we are moving towards our goals, and we look forward to your continued guidance and oversight as we go forward.
As always, comments and reactions are welcome. Direct your thoughts to editor (at) flynextgen (dot) com.
