Marion C. Blakey President and CEO Aerospace Industries Association NextGen Rally Monday, September 30, 2013

Transcription

1 Marion C. Blakey President and CEO Aerospace Industries Association NextGen Rally Monday, September 30, 2013 Thank you Pam Drew, President Exelis Information Systems, for that very kind introduction. I m honored to be here with you today. And I must say, this is a most impressive and diverse audience. It s not every day that environmentalists, pilots, airlines, business travelers and aerospace industry representatives come together under one tent. And to discuss an infrastructure-related issue, no less. On the other hand, we all share a common bond that underscores why this event makes all the sense in the world. Unless John Madden is in the audience, we all fly. And we all want our flying experience to be as efficient, safe and as environmentally friendly as possible. There s not a person among us who likes interminable waits sitting on the runway prior to takeoff clearance. Nor is anyone enamored when flights are delayed by en route weather, especially when the Weather Channel tells us a slightly altered flight plan could get us home safely. And I doubt you re keen about all the money wasted and increased greenhouse gas emissions caused by less than optimized routes. Economists like to call these conditions negative externalities. I like to call it waste, pure and simple. Eleven years ago, as FAA Administrator I joined others in the aerospace community at the Smithsonian s National Air and Space Museum to kick off a year of Centennial of Flight activities. Neil Armstrong and John Glenn were there both pretty accomplished pilots before they were astronauts. So was Orville and Wilbur Wright s great-grand niece, Amanda Wright Lane, Charles Lindbergh s grandson Erik and Amelia Earhart s niece Amy Kleppner. As much as it was a pleasure to celebrate America s aviation heritage and the people who made it possible, I couldn t help but look around the museum and ponder aviation s future. Walking through the museum s aviation wing a bit later, I could see displays of the World War II-era ground based radar systems still in use in airport operations. I also saw aged radio beacons used for today s air routes, that sit in the 1

2 very spots where bonfires directed U.S. mail pilots during Prohibition. A simple thought occurred to me: nostalgia has its place, but so does progress. About that time, a lot of good people at FAA and throughout the community were working hard to define a truly transformational 21st century air transportation system. They weren t looking to put a fresh layer of paint over an increasingly aging and inadequate air traffic infrastructure. They wanted to build a modernized world class edifice for air transportation that would replace radars with precision GPS satellite navigation guidance. They sought to replace garbled hard-to-understand radio transmissions into the cockpit with clear messages and add useful data streams to the mix. And they strove to replace very inflexible and sometimes bumpy air routes the equivalent of our antiquated road system prior to the interstate highways with sleeker, better plotted pathways through the skies. Imagine if you will sliding smoothly down a banister on your next airport descent instead of experiencing a descent that s sometimes like a stomach churning herky-jerky amusement park ride. The vision we all committed to then NextGen has rightly been called one of America s most impressive infrastructure projects. But is also is one of the most invisible public works projects we can imagine. There are no tall cranes, or big-dig excavations, no hard-hatted crews with orange cones or roadside signs to show that our tax dollars and considerable user funding are advancing our generation s greatest public works project. But rest assured we re building a truly remarkable bridge in the sky. And this is a bridge that s going everywhere. We are now a decade into the congressionally mandated NextGen initiative, with the full impact of this system of systems modernization expected by For those who say NextGen is too complicated, unwieldy and expensive to continue pursuing as intended, especially during these tough fiscal times, I would stress the following. If we don t keep moving forward, our nation s air transportation system will be overcome by growing demand. No doubt we ll go back to the bad old days of massive air traffic delays and extreme air traveler frustration. And of course, as we gather today, once again we are facing the specter of another government shutdown. While it is unlikely that a shutdown would negatively impact the direct operations of the air transportation system, I am concerned about possible furloughs of FAA employees involved in the certification of new aviation technologies involved in the planning and implementation of NextGen. If we don t want this important aspect of FAA s work to be slowed down and damage done to other vital government functions, Congress and the White House must act now prevent another government shutdown. We ve seen this movie before and it doesn t have a happy ending. Moving on to our broader subject of why NextGen is needed, last year American airlines and foreign airlines serving the U.S. carried 815 million passengers. That 2

3 number is projected to rise to a billion early in the next decade if not sooner and to 1.2 billion by Just think about how stressed the system will be if we don t move forward with modernization. It s not only increased demand for passenger and cargo services that will impact our air space capacity. The expected integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the National Airspace System and increasing commercial spaceport activities must also be recognized. I just returned from China where air traffic delays were so bad this summer, angry passengers actually assaulted ticket agents at several airports. Now we re not going there, but delays can cause powerful blow-back in our system. And consider this. An FAA-sponsored study primarily conducted by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley found that domestic flight delays put a $33 billion dent into the U.S. economy, with about half the cost borne by passengers. We can t afford not to update. Directly to this point, a Deloitte study predicts that full implementation of NextGen and I emphasize full by 2035 will provide more than $281 billion in net benefits to the economy, and a decade sooner save 27 million hours in flight delays and reduce 216 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. By way of comparison, that s the equivalent of annual greenhouse gas emissions from 45 million passenger vehicles, or the CO 2 emissions from the electricity use of 30 million homes in one year. That s no small potatoes. Put another way, the industry s resolve to have carbon neutral growth by 2020 relies on NextGen moving ahead as planned. Already, the introduction of NextGen technologies and capabilities such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast or ADS-B, and Required Navigation Performance are having a positive impact around some of our busiest and most complex air traffic corridors. I m especially pleased that the use of ADS-B has made a huge difference in the Gulf of Mexico, where the absence of radar coverage has long limited air operations. Today, ADS-B receivers are providing greater flexibility to efficiently route both fixed wing aircraft and especially helicopters through the Gulf. In June, for example, a JetBlue aircraft equipped with ADS-B Out avionics was re-routed across the Gulf of Mexico to avoid turbulent weather on its way from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco. The new flight path reduced the distance flown by 100 miles, resulting in hundreds of gallons of fuel savings. The key to unlocking NextGen s potential is the positive multiplier effect that occurs when improvements such as these are built on top of earlier improvements. Take a look, for example, at FAA s Metroplex initiative, a part of NextGen which will improve air traffic flows into heavily congested metro regions. Using satellite navigation and operational enhancements, Metroplex procedures will allow for shorter, more direct routes that reduce flight time and fuel consumption, and result in fewer carbon emissions. In the Atlanta-Charlotte, North Carolina Metroplex, one of our nation s busiest air corridors, the FAA estimates that its satellite enabled Performance-Based Navigation routes will annually result in 2.5 million fewer nautical miles flown in and out of Charlotte 3

4 and 1.2 million fewer nautical miles for Atlanta flights. This will result in total jet fuel savings of 6.8 million gallons. The Atlanta-Charlotte Metroplex partners, including the FAA, National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Delta Airlines, US Airways, and Atlanta and Charlotte-area airports, are exploring a number of strategies to help reduce airspace complexity. The Atlanta-Charlotte area is just one example of where NextGen is making a difference. In Memphis, a new airplane routing system that allows for shorter gaps between takeoffs of similar airplane types has resulted in a 17 percent increase in airplane traffic. General aviation pilots are using enhanced satellite navigation capabilities to obtain greater access to airports nationwide, especially in bad weather conditions. The FAA projects that NextGen will reduce overall delays by 41 percent by 2020, compared to what would happen if there are no additional NextGen improvements. But of course there are challenges ahead. Two weeks ago the FAA s NextGen Advisory Council recommended that the agency protect funding for top-priority initiatives targeting congestion around busy airports, including the metroxplex initiative. The advisory council s recommendations are an attempt to deal with fiscal realities by supporting projects deemed to be high benefit and high readiness. Now, having been in Michael Huerta s chair, I understand and appreciate thoughtful advice on how the agency can get the biggest bang for the buck. But we should also recognize several factors that must be addressed in any process of setting priorities. First, if you identify top priority projects they in turn deserve adequate funding and attention. Also, those projects deemed of less immediate importance may still be critical to the long-term success of the entire enterprise. I cannot stress enough that NextGen is a whole package a system of systems. Piecemeal technological add-ons will not lead to the dramatic safety and efficiency gains NextGen promises. In addition, the entire NextGen budget comprises a mere six percent of FAA s budget. If we were to put this budget in terms of your personal retirement accounts, NextGen would be analogous to the small portion of your portfolio you invest in a high potential stock. In other words, if you were to travel in time back to the 1960s, and a friend or advisor said you couldn t afford to consider a modest investment in Berkshire Hathaway stock, think about how your world would change based on a simple yes or no decision. Now I m not saying NextGen will turn every taxpayer into the next Warren Buffett but I am saying that to get corn, you must plant seed corn. 4

5 As we ponder the importance of moving forward with NextGen, let s not forget too that the Europeans are racing ahead with NextGen s counterpart SESAR. Countries rapidly developing their civil airspace are certainly looking to see which system will deliver them the most benefit, in the safest manner, at the most reasonable cost. That said, I m optimistic about NextGen and your participation here today adds to my optimism. With tremendous effort, we are making significant progress in installing a modernized system for air travel that is worthy of the greatest nation on Earth. With your continued support, I m convinced we will build NextGen into one of the wonders of the modern world. Thank you again for coming to today s event and for all that you re doing to help advance this vital investment in our nation s future. - AIA - 5