NextGen Task Force Leader Outlines Work

A leader of the recently formed NextGen Mid-Term Implementation Task Force appealed to airline delegates last week to get involved in the ambitious effort to achieve NextGen operational capabilities by 2018.

Stephen J. Vail, senior manager of Air Traffic Operations with cargo carrier FedEx Express, provided an update on its deliberations April 1 to the AEEC Symposium in Minneapolis. Vail serves as co-chairman of the Operational Capabilities work group of the task force.

Meeting under the auspices of RTCA, the task force was commissioned by FAA in the latest update of the regulatory agency’s NextGen Implementation Plan. The mission of the task force is to “accelerate collaboration and forge a consensus-based set of recommendations on a prioritized set of (NextGen) operational capabilities with a positive business case to be delivered by 2018,” according to summary. The recommendations are expected in August.

“We’re trying to wrap our arms around this elephant,” Vail told the symposium. “… That, by the way, is a scary deadline for all of us. We only started this about four and a half weeks ago, and we’ve got to be through by August.”

The task force had identified about 28 “capabilities” as opposed to “tools” on which to focus, Vail said. Next, an operations group will define elements within each capability, such as engineering, training, equipage and regulatory requirements. For those elements, a cost-benefit analysis will be made.

“That will go through a decision assessment tree and hopefully, at the end of August when our report is done, we’ll come out with about six or seven capabilities that can be used as an example and start down a path toward NextGen,” Vail said.