About NextGen

The FAA is working to meet the multiple challenges of significantly improving “safety, security, capacity, efficiency, environmental compatibility of air transportation operations” with NextGen. NextGen’s success rides in part on successfully sustaining aviation’s continued indispensable role in the nation’s economy while protecting the environment.

Perhaps best known of the NextGen program is an upgrade from a ground-based system to satellite-based GPS technology called ADS-B. ADS-B makes use of GPS technology to determine and share precise aircraft location information, and streams additional flight information to the cockpits of properly equipped aircraft. Satellite navigation will let pilots know the precise locations of other airplanes around them. That allows more planes in the sky while enhancing the safety of travel. Satellite landing procedures will let pilots arrive at airports more predictably and more efficiently. And once on the ground, satellite monitoring of airplanes leads to getting you to the gate faster.

The use of NextGen operating procedures will allow aircraft operations to be concentrated within a narrow corridor, thus concentrating operations over a narrow band of property which could result in fewer people experiencing a greater number of operations and higher noise levels.