Thank you for that fine introduction.

I thought this morning it would be a good time to reflect a bit on what’s happened in the last year with NextGen – what we’ve accomplished and where we see it going at this point.

Our focus the last year has been on three distinct areas.

One has been completing the foundational work of NextGen. Completing it on time. Completing it on budget. And communicating about it with stakeholders better than ever.  

The ADS-B ground installation was completed this year on time. This spring, we will have completed ERAM – putting the foundational technologies in our centers.

And as importantly, Ed Bolton, Assistant Administrator for NextGen, and I have been very focused on communicating our progress on foundational projects. I think there’s been a lot of misunderstanding about where NextGen is. The lifecycle was designed as a 20-year, $20 billion endeavor. We’re about $5 billion into that, so, it’s still relatively early in the long haul, if you will. But we are on track to complete the foundational piece.

The second thing that we’re focusing on is delivering benefits to users that have already been in the pipeline. And again we are getting better at articulating what those benefits are.

This year we completed the new Houston Metroplex project. We completed 61 new satellite-based procedures in the metro area. Almost 650,000 fewer nautical miles each year will be flown in that metro area because of the optimization. That saves gas and cuts down on emissions. It’s like taking the equivalent of 6,000 cars off the streets of Houston. Some very significant undertakings that have been in the pipeline for some time are now being delivered.

In addition, there have been new runway procedures in Atlanta that have significantly increased capacity. And wake recategorization has been a major initiative that we’re rolling out that has been hugely popular with carriers. It’s really a very low cost way to increase runway capacity in congested airspace.

And then finally, the third thing we’ve been focusing on is engaging with our stakeholders to make sure that we are aligned with what their interests are. And the major forum for this has been through the NextGen Advisory Committee taskings that Ed will talk about in some detail.

I think I had been here for about a month, when we sent a request to the NextGen Advisory Committee to let us know what industry values as far as these technologies. And that has been hugely meaningful work that has allowed us to be much more aligned with industry and much more focused on delivering benefits to industry.

In some ways, these were confidence building measures, to keep NextGen on track. But they also caused some very real process changes to happen, not only within the FAA but also working with industry. And this has given us some success. That brings us to where we are now. We will continue along the path that we’ve been on for the last year. We will continue to execute on the on the basis of completing the foundation and reporting the metrics. We will continue to execute on the benefits that are in the pipeline.

The North Texas Metroplex is rolled out this week. These are very significant programs that have been underway for years in some cases. And we will continue to execute well and deliver those benefits.

And with respect to the NextGen priorities that we’re working on with the NAC, we will report to Congress in the middle of next month with very definitive milestones and targets and plans. And we will continue to work and execute and meet those targets and plans. So there’s a very significant amount of work underway.

As we look to the future, as we look at how to keep NextGen on track, I think now our focus is turning to another milestone that’s out in front of us, which is the 2020 mandate for ADS-B equipage. And I would say that there is not a more important milestone in NextGen than ADS-B equipage. It is the technology that will be used in NextGen. It is what allows us to replace the radar-based system with a GPS-based system.

As you all undoubtedly know, the rule was put in place in 2010. It was put in place with a 10-year runway to allow equipage to occur. That runway was there to allow the carriers to have a normal cycle of aircraft replacement and maintenance. It was there to give GA an opportunity to equip, and for the cost of equipage to come down. And there was also a 10 year period to allow some certainty that the FAA would be able to execute on its part of the bargain with the installation of ADS-B.

So we’re now half-way to that point. We’re almost five years from the day of the mandate. I think there have been some very good trends that we’ve seen with ADS-B equipage. We have seen the price of equipage for GA come down. It seems like every time there’s an airshow at Oshkosh, the price has come down another thousand dollars. We’re seeing positive trends in that direction.

As I mentioned, the ADS-B infrastructure has been completed, so we have done our part of the bargain. The installations are there, and ERAM, which will operate ADS-B, will be up and running. Now we come to the point where we’re looking at how we are going to go operational. We have only so much visibility into the plans of the carriers. These plans for equipage are sensitive plans. But these are the kinds of issues that we need to start looking at and how we’re going to stay on track with that date.

We’re doing two things in this regard. The first is that we are communicating clearly and unequivocally that the 2020 mandate will not change. That date is not going to change. If I could think of another way of saying that, I would. But the date is not going to change. And we have to make sure that that has been understood.

The second thing is that we’re announcing an industry Call to Action, which the FAA will host on October 28 in our offices. The invitations are going out today. We are going to bring together industry leaders and associations to have a day where we look at where we are with ADS-B and where we are with equipage. We want to form working groups and try to identify what the issues are, or what the barriers are. What can industry do to move forward and what can we do to move forward. And then in four months regroup to guide that work.

If you look at the work that’s gone on at the NAC with the NextGen priorities, if you look at the intensity of the work that’s gone on, with over 100 companies involved, working with the FAA. We need to bring that same kind of intensity to looking at the ADS-B issue. If we don’t equip by 2020, it’s not possible to keep NextGen on track. Right now NextGen is on track. And we will keep it on track, but we’ve got to meet that mandate.  

One of the reasons we want to do this is because we’ve had a series of private conversations on the issues around this, and we get a lot of myths. We get a lot of stakeholders who point to other stakeholders and say, well, we would really like to equip, but the manufacturers are doing this, or the avionics manufacturers are doing that and the carriers are doing that. So we want to get everyone in the room so that we can start to hash that out.

I can’t think of a more appropriate place to initiate this effort than here at the NextGen Institute. The NextGen Institute is a perfect partner for us to do this work.

We want to use the Institute’s experience to help us stay on track and bring it together for 2020. We’re looking forward to working with all of you and your cooperation.

Let me stop there, and I’m happy to answer any questions.