Capt. Lee Moak
PRESIDENT
ALPA
AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INTERNATIONAL
30
NextGen Now | Winter 2014
ALPA recently concluded its Board of Directors meeting with a theme of
"stronger moving forward," and it hit me that the phrase also sums up our
hopes for NextGen — we want our NAS to be stronger moving forward, and
NextGen is integral to making that happen.
The recent Chicago Center fire shows how NextGen makes us stronger.
Alongside a tremendous effort by the workforce at ZAU, NATCA, management,
and PASS members working side by side, the FAA would not have been able
to get things back up and running so quickly without the improvements
NextGen has already made with En Route Automation Modernization
technology. And as FAA Administrator Michael Huerta recently said at an
Aero Club lunch, "NextGen gives us the ability to recover from unexpected
outages more quickly because it's a more flexible system."
At the most recent NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC) meeting, we discussed
how to prioritize what each of the stakeholders want and expect in the new
system. Exercises like this help focus on what's important to those of us in
the industry, including valuable input from the users of the system — pilots
and controllers alike, out on the front line. By doing that, we can assure
industry input will help NextGen get the most "bang for the buck," and that
our airlines can use NextGen improvements right out of the gate to make real
gains in the industry, helping the U.S. remain the world leader in aviation.
Now that the FAA has released the NextGen Priorities Joint Implementation
Plan (and we applaud them for staying on deadline for this release), I look
forward to the next NAC meeting, where stakeholders will review the plan
and discuss the implications.
Stronger Moving Forward
