The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) refers to the federal programs (predominately airspace, air traffic, or avionics related) that are designed to modernize the National Airspace System (NAS). ACRP’s NextGen initiative aims to inform airport operators about some of these programs and how the capabilities, data, and technologies resulting from them will affect airports and change how they operate.
ACRP Report 150: NextGen for Airports, Volume 2: Guidance for Engaging Airport Stakeholders is the second report in this series. This report provides guidance to help airports engage the FAA, aircraft operators, community representatives, and other airport stakeholders during the planning, environmental review, design, deployment, and monitoring phases of NextGen implementation. The guidance includes tools that encourage proactive communication and collaboration specifically tailored for a variety of factors, including airport category, stakeholder role, and type of NextGen technology being implemented. The goal is to help airports establish a continuous engagement strategy that will achieve an equitable balance between stakeholder needs and efficient NextGen implementation.
Some of the airport-relevant effects that are expected from NextGen include:
- Safety – situational awareness, less divergence from intended tracks, increased information without an increased burden of communication
- Efficiency – aircraft fuel savings, improved airspace and infrastructure utilization, improved taxiing performance
- Sustainability – altered noise distribution, emissions reductions
- Reliability – consistency in practice, improved access to airports in varying weather conditions
Unfortunately, airport stakeholders are often engaged in NextGen implementation near the end of the process, when many decisions have already been made. This engenders a narrow focus on the environmental issues of noise and emissions and misses the opportunity to engage and inform the overall community of the safety, capacity, and economic impacts that such procedures offer. What is increasingly needed is a more inclusive approach that looks at the benefits of NextGen for the airport and its stakeholders.
An effective stakeholder engagement strategy encompasses the adaptation of materials and methods focused on NextGen initiatives and stakeholder scenarios that are important to an airport. To help achieve this goal, aelectronic engagement materials is available on-line. Access can be found on the TRB website searching for ACRP Report 150, Volume 2. The materials provided in the toolkit include, an interactive flow chart, a sample agenda for stakeholder meetings, a sample community presentation, a flyer, FAQs, a glossary of terms, and a library of documents.
Within the guidebook, case studies that describe how a representative spectrum of airports have implemented such materials are provided to highlight effective practices and lessons learned. The case studies offer varying perspectives from FAA, airport management, airline representatives, and, where appropriate, members of the community.
This project is part of an ACRP NextGen initiative comprised of five distinct projects, which have been conducted simultaneously. The scope, ideas, and preliminary results have been shared among all five projects. The titles of the ACRP projects included in the ACRP NextGen Initiative are as follows:
· ACRP 01-27, NextGen—A Primer
· ACRP 01-28, NextGen—Guidance for Engaging Airport Stakeholders
· ACRP 03-33, NextGen—Airport Planning and Development
· CRP 03-34, NextGen—Understanding the Airport’s Role in Performance-Based Navigation (PBN)
· ACRP 09-12, NextGen—Leveraging NextGen Spatial Data to Benefit Airports
Under ACRP Project 01-28, research was conducted by Grafton Technologies, Inc., in association with Harris Miller Miller & Hanson, Inc., Eastern Research Group, Inc., and Grafton Information Services, Inc.
STATUS: The resesarch is published as Report 150 Volume 2.
