GAO says plan to replace air traffic control system lacks performance metrics

The Federal Aviation Administration has not established performance goals and metrics for its far-reaching plan to replace the nation's aging radar-based air traffic control system, which could hinder its successful adoption, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

While FAA has said NextGen could reduce flight delays by as much as 21 percent, the agency has not outlined specific goals or how to achieve those outcomes, according to a Nov. 22 letter from GAO to Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., ranking member of the House Transportation Committee and Rep. Thomas Petri, R-Wis., ranking member of the aviation subcommittee.

Without milestones for the program, FAA could pursue and implement strategies that fail to produce the desired results, GAO said. For example, FAA lacks metrics for the development of performance-based navigational routes, which rely on space-based communications rather than ground-based radar beacons. The agency currently measures its performance by the number of flight routes it creates annually.

But GAO said stakeholders argue this performance metric does not necessarily benefit NexGen's stakeholders, specifically airlines. For them, it's not the number of routes that are important, but whether those routes reduce flight time or save fuel, for example.

"If . . . the agency measured its performance by the reductions in flying times and fuel use that operators derived from using the procedures," GAO wrote, "then [FAA] would have an incentive to focus on developing procedures with those types of benefits."

GAO reiterated that it recently recommended FAA work with industry and other stakeholders to develop outcome-based performance metrics and to draw up a timeline and action plan for NextGen implementation. The watchdog said FAA recently has taken steps on these recommendations, such as creating teams that include FAA and industry to evaluate performance-based navigation procedures at individual airports in Dallas and Washington.

In an e-mailed statement, spokesman Paul Takemoto said FAA is committed to the success of NextGen. The agency is "working closely with a broad range of aviation stakeholders to continue to refine the NextGen action plan."

"We recently formed the NextGen Advisory Committee to focus specifically on the development of NextGen performance goals and metrics as well as future critical decisions," he added. "The FAA is equipped and focused on completing this complex transformation of our nation's airspace system."