Report Highlights FAA’s Hits and Misses on NextGen

A newly released Capstone Memorandum report from the U.S. DOT Office of Inspector General (OIG) analyzes what it considers the successes and failures of the FAA’s planned NextGen air traffic control (ATC) modernization program. That program, launched more than 20 years ago, is officially being scrapped in favor of a new ATC infrastructure modernization program proposed by the Trump Administration. 

Launched in 2003, NextGen was one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in U.S. history—an estimated $36 billion effort to modernize the nation’s aging air transportation system. Since 2006, OIG has issued 50 reports addressing NextGen and related programs and made more than 200 recommendations to improve FAA management and execution of NextGen programs, coordination with stakeholders, analysis of benefits, and more.

The memorandum outlines the background of each delay or failure in reaching equipment and other program milestones and the associated cost overruns. However, the FAA maintains that NextGen “is still expected to deliver a positive return on investment to taxpayers, returning between $36 and $63 billion in projected benefits by 2040, in return for the $15 billion spent so far.”

Nevertheless, the FAA’s efforts have not delivered the vision of a transformed and modernized ATC system, the OIG concluded. “As such, there are a number of key lessons learned from more than two decades of NextGen planning, development, and implementation that the FAA can leverage to benefit future modernization efforts,” the report says.

As the FAA works to plan and implement the new ATC system, “leveraging these lessons can help the FAA set stakeholder expectations, secure additional industry investment, and continue to make progress in improving the efficiency of the NAS,” it concludes.