Timeline
The origins of NextGen trace back to the "Vision 100 - A Century Of Aviation Reauthorization Act," passed by Congress in December 2003. This bill aimed to shift from radar-based guidance systems to GPS positioning, allowing for more direct flight routes to save fuel, time, money, and - allegedly - reduce carbon emissions. In practice, NextGen intended to increase airport throughput by guiding aircraft more precisely into airports, benefiting airlines with fuel savings and higher profits.
However, achieving these goals required aircraft to fly at significantly lower elevations in congested airspace, resulting in a dramatic increase in low-altitude flights over communities. This shift has led to a significant rise in noise and air pollution for many communities, contradicting the FAA's assurances of "no new or significant" impacts from NextGen.Promises of decreased carbon emissions from more efficient routing have not materialized as expected, with studies showing minimal fuel savings and a net increase in emissions due to the overall goal of increasing air traffic.Congress Approval
December 2003
Congress passes the Vision 100 - Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act, which officially starts the process of development and implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).
FAA Ground Work
June 2007
The Joint Planning Development Office releases The Concept of Operations for NextGen, highlighting crucial research and policy issues that need to be addressed to meet national air transportation objectives.
First Testing
Summer 2008
The FAA begins introducing NextGen capabilities at the Florida NextGen Test Bed.
FAA Seeks Extra Capacity
November 2008
The FAA authorizes dependent instrument approaches for closely spaced parallel runways with centerline spacing of less than 2,500 feet. This procedure enhances runway capacity at major airports.
George W Bush Pushes On
November 2008
'President George W Bush issues Executive Order 13479, emphasizing the importance of implementing NextGen. The order also directs the Secretary of Transportation to establish a support staff for NextGen (read more about this here).'
Obama Sets Deadlines to Introduce NextGen
February 2012
President Barack Obama signs the FAA Re-authorization bill, which includes approx $11 billion towards NextGen. The law also includes establishing deadlines for adopting existing NextGen navigation and surveillance technology, and mandates the development of Performance Based Navigation procedures at the nation 35 busiest airports by 2015. It also includes a way to cut an environmental review and bypass citizen engagement on the matter.
More Capacity == More Planes
February 2012
Memphis Tower is the first facility to implement the new standards. Closer spacing allows aircrafts to be cleared for takeoff with less separation from the previous departure on the same runway, thereby increasing capacity and reducing taxi-out times.
First Official Implementation
18 June 2014
Implementation of the Houston Metroplex, the first of 13 metroplex locations scheduled to switch to Performance Based Navigation (another name for NextGen procedures). North California and Chicago Metroplex would follow over the following months.
Complaints Skyrocket
Spring 2015
'O'Hare International Airport receives 2 million noise complaints from 44,500 addresses in the first 8 months of 2015. Santa Cruz County, CA, files over 12,000 noise complaints to San Francisco International Airport in June 2015, compared to just one complaint for the entire year of 2014. (read more about this here).'
The N/E Corridor
April 2017
The FAA begins to develop the roadmap for implementing NextGen in the Northeast Corridor, the airspace between Washington DC and Boston. Rollout proceeds in a speedy fashion, despite considerable push back from communities that begin to experience the inequalities and harsh nature of NextGen overflights.
ADS-B Enters the Scene
Summer 2018
'ADS-B determines an aircraft position via satellite navigation or other sensors and periodically broadcasts that and other related data, enabling it to be tracked. It will soon become a very important device for communities impacted by aviation noise. (check out ADS-B here).'
Cleveland-Detroit Metroplex Completed
October 2019
The FAA completes the re-design on the Cleveland-Detroit airspace paving the way for NextGen rollout.
Denver and South FL Metroplex Completed
October 2020
The FAA completes the re-design of the Colorado airspace, and of the South Central FLorida airspace (31 airports), giving the go ahead to NextGen.
DoT Says that NextGen Benefits have not materialized
March 2021
'NextGen's actual and projected benefits have not kept pace with initial projections due to implementation challenges, optimistic assumptions, and other factors. FAA's most recent business case projects total NextGen benefits to be over $100 billion LESS than the original estimate, and benefits actually achieved to date have been MINIMAL and difficult to measure. FAA's projections were optimistic about traffic growth and did not account for risk factors. (read the full report).'
Las Vegas Metroplex Completed
September 2021
The FAA completes the re-design of the Las Vegas Metroplex project, giving the go ahead to NextGen.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
November 2021
Biden signs the $1 trillion dollar bill that will effectively give the green light to countless airport expansions. Both parties long term view seems to be the one of never-ending aviation growth. Communities already struggling with aviation pollution and noise are left alone with their struggles.
N/E Corridor Coastal Routes Project Completed
April 2023
'New/amended Q Routes and Y Routes replace the north-south high-altitude route structure along the east coast of the United States. In practice, 133 routes are consolidated, their altitudes changed, waypoints re-shuffled, and overall traffic shifted to cater for airlines fuel savings (see the official status update here).'
Noise Policy Review
September 2023
'Recent neighborhood noise study (check it here, and also here) forces the FAA to set up a review of their outdated noise policy. Thousands of citizens leave comments denouncing the inadequacy of the DNL metric, mentioning failures to account for the changes happened in the last decades (ie NextGen). AICA publishes a paper analyzing the issue in depth (read it here). At the time of writing, results of the noise review are still to be published.'