Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Thank you, Pete [Dumont, President of the Air Traffic Control Association], for that kind introduction. It is great to be here with so many friends and colleagues in the aviation industry. Before I go any further, I want to acknowledge the great contributions of a civil servant who is leaving public office. John Pistole has announced he is retiring as Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration after four-and-a-half years leading that agency. I have the deepest respect for his work and the dedicated leadership he has provided and wish him the very best in his new endeavors.
Chicago
As you all know, we have had a very busy last few weeks. The sabotage and resulting fire at our en route center near Chicago can only be described with one word: devastating. But it was also something else. It was an event that was marked by profound teamwork.
FAA Chief Operating Officer Teri Bristol and I have spent a lot of time together the last few weeks. When we visited Chicago Center to see the progress on our recovery, I couldn’t tell who was a manager, and who was a controller, and who was a technician. I couldn’t tell who was from industry and who was from the FAA. In fact, what it looked like was one team.
It just goes to show what can happen when the FAA and industry work together, come up with a plan, establish targets and then commit to meet them. We did that in Chicago. And we need to do that on a much larger scale for the future of the aviation industry.
You are all aware that the FAA is facing significant challenges in both maintaining our system – 50,000 operations per day, countless companies all supporting nearly 12 million jobs – and at the same time modernizing that system. And this needs to take place in the face of an extremely unforgiving budget environment.
As an industry, we have the responsibility to pull together as one, like we did in Chicago, and create the kind of airspace system that will serve our needs and provide a very bright future for this country. When we cooperate, look what happens. Chicago Center came back into service three days ago, as promised. It took just two weeks.
Let me tell you why it worked. Chicago Center controllers traveled to facilities in other states to help keep air traffic moving. They are the experts in Chicago’s air space, and they put that knowledge to work helping their colleagues at adjacent facilities who had assumed the responsibility for air traffic that would typically be handled by Chicago Center.
Technicians rerouted phone lines to keep communications flowing. At the same time mechanics and electricians rebuilt from the fire – installing two dozen racks of equipment and connecting more than 10 miles of cable to some 835 distinct circuits. This was an extraordinary team effort and a very quick turnaround time. It should be a lesson to all of us about the rewards of cooperation and the rewards of having a clear mission.
Regardless of this great work, I do understand the traveling public was frustrated. They were frustrated with flight delays and they were frustrated with cancellations. We are currently in the middle of the 30-day review of our contingency plans and security procedures for our major air traffic facilities. I’ve asked my team to think as creatively as possible and make recommendations for improvements.
Some think the FAA should have been able to restore full operations in a matter of hours, but our contingency plans have always been about the steps we take to maintain a safe system. Safety overrides every other factor. The plans have never been designed so that we could handle a full schedule for the airlines within minutes or hours of a major catastrophic event.
In the long run, however, NextGen gives us the ability to recover from unexpected outages more quickly because it’s a more flexible system. Chicago is a good example of why we all need to come together to make sure we focus on upgrading our nation’s airspace infrastructure so that we remain competitive and make sure we can withstand the unexpected.
NextGen Priorities
That same team work and collaboration that allowed us to get Chicago Center up and running in two weeks is a model for what we, as an industry, need to do more of. In fact, that same level of cooperation has taken place between the FAA and industry over the last year as we defined and focused our NextGen priorities. We have worked collaboratively with industry through the NextGen Advisory Committee. We listen to what you say and we actively respond.
We are very focused on providing near term NextGen benefits and have already done so in many parts of the country. And we are building on this and sharpening our focus on near term benefits. Tomorrow, we will be delivering a report to Congress outlining the near-term priorities that we have all agreed upon – government and industry – and we are committed to deliver. These priorities fall in four areas: more satellite-based navigation procedures; better use of runways; better situational awareness at airports; and more streamlined departure clearances through DataComm.
Let me give you a couple of examples of what we are working on.
The first is satellite-based navigation. A lot of good work has been happening in Seattle and Denver and other cities through collaboration with airlines, airports, and other stakeholders. We are fast-tracking more direct routes in the airspace above other busy metropolitan areas through our Metroplex initiative. Already, airlines are seeing benefits in fuel savings and lower carbon emissions. Take Houston and North Texas for example. In Houston alone, this amounts to 3 million gallons of fuel savings annually – and millions of dollars in savings for the airlines that operate there. Now we will expand these benefits to Northern California, Charlotte and Atlanta in the next three years in response to the request that came in from industry.
While these procedures make our airspace more efficient, we also want to get the most out of our nation’s runways, which takes me to the second example. Industry has asked loud and clear for improved wake turbulence separation standards at more airports. We heard you, and we are increasing the number of airports with this capability. We are going to reduce separation standards at nine new airports in five cities over the next year. Those cities are: Houston, metropolitan New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Charlotte.
We have already seen the benefits in Memphis and Louisville over the last two years. This year, we have implemented these new standards in Cincinnati and Atlanta. At Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, we’re seeing great results. Delta Air Lines is reporting faster taxi out times, reduced delays in the departure queue and that they are spending less time in TRACON airspace.
Industry and the FAA came together to choose these four NextGen priorities and we will deliver on them. We focused our efforts so that we could achieve the maximum benefits in the shortest amount of time.
Longer term NextGen and Chicago
But what about the longer term? We’re also planning into the future, for longer-term benefits from airspace modernization through new technologies. Again, taking the incident in Chicago as an example, I want to paint a picture of how NextGen helped us recover from this air traffic outage much more quickly and how it will help us even more in the future.
The common theme in NextGen is that we are switching our nation’s air traffic system from point to point communications to a network of communications. One facility can communicate with all, and all can communicate with one.
Right now each air traffic facility can only see and talk to aircraft within their proscribed area. Voice radios and radars are wired directly and exclusively into the facilities that they serve. NextGen’s architecture is much more resilient and is more flexible than our legacy, point to point systems. The NAS Voice System is one example. It will allow us to transfer duties from one facility to another much more easily, if need be. That’s a lot different than changing a lot of hard wiring.
The NextGen alternative to radar – Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast – is once again, a network of sensors. This allows us to adjust the surveillance picture that controllers see by changing network settings. In contrast, radar is point to point and potentially requires modifying hardware like phone lines, routers, modems and switches to change the picture a controller sees. It is a much less flexible system. NextGen will take the entire airspace and make it much more flexible and adaptable.
You’re already seeing the results. During this Chicago incident, we reconfigured our new en route automation modernization platform – ERAM – so that controllers in adjacent centers could see far beyond the boundaries of their own center and deeply into the airspace that was controlled by Chicago Center. It was great to visit Kansas City Center and see Kansas City controllers sitting at the screen, with Chicago sectors displayed and with Chicago controllers sitting next to them, and making sure that they understood the unique operational characteristics of that airspace. Now, we got a complete picture by putting it all together in a way where we were taking advantage of the flexibility of ERAM. Our legacy system would not allow controllers to see past their own center’s airspace. Since ERAM is a network, its architecture is more flexible and it’s powerful. ERAM can process information from a much larger base of surveillance points as well – 64 different radars versus 24 radars on the legacy system. And it can follow nearly twice the number of aircraft. So, as a result, controllers in adjacent centers had the ability to see the traffic flying through Chicago Center’s airspace and they were better able to control it. The proof is that just four days after the shutdown, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport was once again the busiest airport in the world, and was handling more operations than any other airport.
With NAS Voice System, ERAM and ADS-B, we will have more flexibility to control our airspace in a much more dynamic way. It means we will be able to provide traditional, high efficiency separation of aircraft in the event of an unplanned outage.
ADS-B Call to Action
Many of you know that ADS-B is one of the foundational elements of NextGen. It’s the technology that allows us to move from a radar-based system to a satellite-based system. Our nation’s air transportation network has long been a paradigm for safety and for efficiency around the world, but our role as a world leader is not something that we can take for granted. Technology is evolving, and we as an industry need to take advantage of the greater efficiencies that are enabled by these new technologies.
It’s the job of government to lay the groundwork for infrastructure projects that will benefit everyone, and that’s just what we’ve done. This year the FAA completed the installation of hundreds of ground transceivers for ADS-B. In addition, the automation system that runs ADS-B –ERAM—is now operating in 16 of 20 centers across the nation that control high altitude air traffic. Now, we have come a very long way with ERAM and I’m very proud that we are pushing this program across the finish line this spring to the remaining four centers. This is a powerful automation tool, and it is going to make a huge difference in the efficiency and safety of our skies.
We are also installing a new automation system in the TRACON airspace as well, and key facilities will have it by 2016. This is all very significant progress.
Recent assertions by the DOT Inspector General that ADS-B is not providing benefits today are missing the key point. The ADS-B network has created the foundation for NextGen and the many additional benefits that will be layered on top of this base system. It’s like the foundation of a house – it’s essential that you build it first.
A report by the MITRE Corporation came out last week showing that we are right on track with NextGen. We have followed through on a decision made in 2010 – with the help and input from industry – to move our country to a satellite-based system that will provide greater situational awareness for all airspace users and greater competitiveness for our country. The MITRE report looked at the bigger picture and recognized that the full benefits of ADS-B will be realized once industry equips to use the system that we have built.
The deadline for equipping is a little more than five years from now. As many of you know, we are holding a Call to Action on ADS-B equipage at the end of this month. We are going to bring together industry leaders and associations to identify the barriers to compliance and discuss solutions. We need to make sure that everyone is prepared to comply with the January 1, 2020 mandate, because that deadline is not going to change.
Unity in Reauthorization
We need to bring this same level of focus, and cooperation as we look to reauthorization. We will only realize the full benefits of our airspace system when we have an aviation industry that is engaged and that is united around our priorities. We have a lot to accomplish to modernize our nation’s airspace and also maintain the equipment we use each and every day. Our stakeholders would like us to do everything better; to do it faster; and to do it cheaper. Believe me, we’re all for that, but the question is, how are we going to do that in a constrained and unpredictable fiscal environment?
This industry needs to come together and rally around what is important, just as we all rallied together in Chicago to get the job done. This industry needs to fight for the priorities we all arrive at, and agree on how we’re going to pay for them. This process will take compromise and setting aside of the many differences we might have between us. Everyone in this room has a responsibility to support efforts to secure an airspace system that best serves our entire nation. A good way to accomplish this is through the FAA reauthorization that we’ll be working on this year.
We started a conversation last year about what kind of an airspace system we want and how we should pay for it. There’s a sense among some in the industry that it’s time for structural reform. That is because the FAA is facing two main problems. First, there is a lack of predictability in our budgets due to short term extensions and continuing resolutions, and because of the constrained fiscal climate here in Washington. Second, we face challenges focusing on core priorities in light of the very diverse interests of all of our stakeholders. It’s clear to me, however, that we will not succeed if we don’t prioritize.
Now, there is no shortage of viewpoints on how to solve these problems and the direction we should take. But what I hear are many separate conversations – conversations about air traffic control or about addressing certification. What we need to have is a conversation across the industry to identify the priorities for the system as a whole. The danger is that if we only promote certain narrow interests, we could devolve into trading one of our interests off against another, and our industry as a whole will be worse off.
If the incident in Chicago teaches us anything, it’s that when the system shuts down, there are immediate economic consequences. Our national airspace system underpins an industry that adds $1.5 trillion to our economy. This system is really an ecosystem, where each part relies on the other to function well. There can’t be a disconnect between industry and government or between sectors in the industry if we expect to be successful. All of us should have a very keen interest in how all of these issues play out.
So, we need to have an honest conversation about the fiscal challenges we face. While you can always debate the exact budgetary needs of an agency, one thing is clear: there is simply no way the FAA can implement NextGen, and recapitalize our aging infrastructure; and continue to provide our current level of services without making some serious tradeoffs. Even with short term choices, there will be significant impacts to our budget and the services we can provide. We need to have the flexibility to make investment choices that further the health of our airspace system, and not make choices simply because they might be politically popular.
A year ago it was clear to me that there was a sense of urgency, and many parts of the industry were willing to entertain some approaches that might have been ruled out previously. The past year has only sharpened my own sense of urgency. However, I fear there is a level of complacency that’s developing that business as usual might work. It won’t. And complacency is a mistake. If we don’t come up with a concrete plan, and if we don’t do it collectively, I’m afraid we’ll be signing up for more instability and uncertainty –which is exactly what we all say we don’t want.
America truly is unique in that we have a vibrant and diverse aviation industry – commercial carriers, regional carriers, business aviation and recreational flyers, not to mention new users like unmanned aircraft and commercial space operators. We have a strong manufacturing base for aircraft and for avionics. Each sector is important and together they create those 12 million jobs that civil aviation contributes to our economy.
Aviation was born in America. It started here, and it’s always embodied the pioneer spirit. So many before us have made great contributions in engineering, avionics, design and manufacturing – all of which have gotten us to where we are today.
It’s our responsibility as leaders in this industry to protect our system and move it forward. We need to think about the future and how we will modernize our system. If all we’re going to do is protect our own positions and jockey for advantage, thinking we can somehow go it alone, we are wrong. We all need each other, and we need consensus across the entire industry.
Again, think back to our experience in Chicago. In just two weeks, a team of dedicated people turned an incredibly bad situation – an act of sabotage – completely around. They kept air traffic moving into the world’s busiest airport, doing whatever it took. They did it because they are dedicated. They are proud of our aviation system and they were able to set aside any differences, come together, and come up with a plan. Our whole industry can do the same.
Coming to some kind of consensus is not easy. In fact, we all know it’s very, very hard. But the price of complacency will be much greater. Aviation has consistently pioneered innovation in this country, so let’s create an alternative path to the gridlock that is so prevalent here in Washington. I look forward to finding a solution with all of you in this room to ensure that we at the FAA, and you in industry, are in the position to continue to provide the safest and most efficient system that we need in the years ahead. None of us should not settle for anything less than that.
Thank you very much.