thout sacrificing safety, thereby increasing airspace capacity.
Flight paths across the country will no longer be limited by radar on the ground and air highways. Planes will take direct flight paths accounting for the wind speed, the distance of their final destinations, the surrounding air traffic, and the most current weather information which is displayed in the cockpit via the ADS-B.
Arrivals and Departures Via NextGen Tools
Hundreds of miles away form the airport, planes wait for permission to land. Under the old ATC system, planes might circle the airport for quite awhile before they could descend, wasting fuel in the process. However, the FAA has now developed tools to safely bring aircraft to their destination airport as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Tailored Arrivals (TA) is one of these tools that allow controllers to look over an aircraft’s flight path and tailor it to avoid certain conditions that might otherwise slow it down, such as bad weather and restricted airspace.
For example, earlier this year the San Francisco International Airport saw more then 250 TAs, resulting in an estimated 27,350 gallons of fuel savings. Yet, this fuel conservation is not the only benefits NextGen brings to airlines and the environment.
In preparation for descent, the plane uses yet another on-board software tool—The Continuous Descent Arrival (CDA)—that keeps the most efficient altitude for as long as possible before the plane begins its approach to the airport.
This results in a smooth descent—rather than the stepped-down approach required by current procedures—saving time and money while reducing carbon emissions, noise, and holding patterns.
With this new tool alone Delta Airlines saved an estimated 200 pounds to 1,250 pounds of carbon and 10 gallons to 60 gallons of fuel per arrival into Atlanta’s airport during flight trials, according to FAA.
At the time of touch down, the plane’s ADS-B will provide the crew with their runway exit, taxi route, and assigned gate allowing passengers to reach the gate faster and more efficiently.
The Future of NextGen
The NextGen tool box is currently being tested in many of the major national airports, from ground control to in-flight and landing procedures. These new features have demonstrated improved traffic flow on the ground as well as to increased capacity in airspace on busy routes.
JFK and Memphis airports have participated in tests of new Surface Management programs to let greater aircraft flow on the ground.
To get a feel for the whole NextGen system in action, check out Florida’s airports. They have become the test centers for what nationwide deployment of NextGen will look like. Continuous Descent Arrivals are tested on the routes between state airports (including Miami, Orlando, and Daytona Beach) and the New York area airports (Teterboro, JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark).
The application of NextGen has demonstrated increased efficiency in coordinating the crowded corridors of the East Coast, once again saving money for the airlines and time for the passengers.
Since the safe and efficient use of airspace depends on how well the different systems in NextGen communicate with each other, the FAA has developed the System Wide Information Management (SWIM)—a platform that will allow this to happen.
For example, if a U.S. plane is on its way to Europe, SWIM will enable foreign and domestic aviation procedures and regulations to talk to each other.
Next Gen is expected to be fully integrated and operational nationwide by 2018.
In the meantime, as various aspects of NextGen make their way into the nation’s airports passengers may already find flights to be smoother and arrivals more timely, making for better fuel efficiency and more reasonable ticket rates. But, most importantly, NextGen will make for safer travel from gate to gate.