Speech

ATCA Convention

Remarks as prepared for delivery.

Good morning. Thank you, Pete [Dumont]. As always, kudos to ATCA on a good show. But before we get rolling, I’d like to issue a special welcome to our international visitors, the civil aviation authority representatives, the vendors, the air navigation service providers, CANSO. It is important to the success of global aviation that you’re with us at this conference.

As you can see from the agenda and as you walk through the exhibits, we’re here to talk about a number of things, but the big ticket in this hall is NextGen. Let’s be candid with ourselves for a moment:  if our equation for NextGen doesn’t have an international component, we’re in a deep stall. Look at any forecast by any group, and it’s going to tell you that the international market is on the way up. It’s got to be factored in, no questions asked.

NextGen is not limited to red, white and blue. If we’re sure of anything about aviation, it’s that change is constant. Today long-range flights are routine. Detroit to Narita is just one more run. When you’re talking about “puddle jumpers” these days, that puddle is an ocean.

Recognizing this, we do indeed need cooperation and collaboration between and among ourselves here in the States. But cooperation and collaboration can’t stop at the shoreline. We must make sure that interoperability is the order of the day, and I think we are. If your product or service doesn’t work beyond your borders, it’s time to get back to the drawing board.

The Obama Administration and Secretary LaHood are enthusiastic about the potential for international linkage, such as the links between NextGen/SESAR. I’ve flown enough to know that this is a success story waiting to happen. As I told RTCA, we need to advance well beyond the preliminaries of NextGen. We as a group need to commit together to giving modernization the momentum it needs.

Without equivocation, I’m making that commitment for the FAA right here, right now. I didn’t want there to be any doubt with my comments to RTCA, and I want to drive home that same message this morning. We have the support of the Secretary and the President. They want this modernization program up and running as quickly as possible, and they are fully supportive. We have the green light — we have a clearance.

And it should be equally clear to the people in this room that international linkage is only the half of it. Under the philosophy of NextGen, everyone is interlinked. NextGen is not an air traffic control modernization program in its silo, and it was never intended to be. The goal is to have everyone become part of the infrastructure. Aircraft, air traffic control, airline operations centers, airports, defense and homeland security systems and the people who operate, inspect and maintain all of these.

Further, NextGen isn’t created in the airlines’ own image. NextGen is also designed for general aviation, military aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial systems, commercial spaceflight — the entire aviation community.

With that as an over-arching principle, everyone’s got to be on the same page strategically, tactically, operationally. We want everyone talking together. That is the end-state, if you will, of NextGen. But in order for that to happen, everyone’s got to start talking together now.

Cooperation is needed at unprecedented levels in order for us to pull this one off. If you’re going into this with a territorial mind-set, don’t do it. There is no one major player in the system as contemplated by NextGen. If you have a burning need to put someone at the top of the list, it’s the passenger. He’s not concerned with multi-lateration or situational awareness. The passenger is focused on the basics. Did I leave enough time to make it through security? Did I take off when I was supposed to? Did I land when I was supposed to? And did my bags have the happy coincidence of being on the plane with me? 

The RTCA gave us an excellent head start on the acceleration plans with its recommendations. There wasn’t a whole lot of ambiguity in there. We asked the question, “What do you want?” And industry answered. The Task Force has forged a consensus across a wide spectrum of users. The recommendations are clear, actionable, and achievable. And even if it does require us to modify our plans and processes, we are ready to commit appropriate resources and get to work on implementation of Task Force recommendations.

Concerning equipage, we will place NextGen capabilities where they matter. The critics who pointed out that we had some RNP and RNAV approaches in ineffective spots are right. We’re going to push for these approaches where they deliver greatest efficiencies.

And concerning acceleration itself, we’re not going to sacrifice long-term deliverables at the altar of near-term expediencies. Industry wants maximum benefit from today’s tools. NextGen’s long-term capabilities aren’t a mutually exclusive endeavor. For example, the lessons learned from implementing the recommendations of this task force will help us derive maximum benefit from ADS-B once the supporting infrastructure and standards are in place.

In closing, each of these programs that make up NextGen is designed with the broadest possible application in mind. We’re stressing cooperation, collaboration and interoperability. We have the White House behind us, and the industry giving us clear direction about what it needs. The rest is up to us — all of us.