FAA hires ITT to develop new satellite-based air traffic network

Although Congress has yet to approve a funding method for a new air traffic control system – and the Federal Aviation Administration’s budget authority will expire at the end of September unless Congress acts – the FAA went ahead and awarded a key $1.8 billion contract last week that should eventually bring major improvements to the nation’s congested airways. Currently, using its radar-based air traffic control system, the best the FAA can do to alleviate congestion delays is to tweak existing software programs, allowing controllers to squeeze a few more planes into the traffic flow. But the FAA wants to deploy a totally new satellite-based navigational system, and it has contracted ITT Corporation to begin developing it. The FAA’s so-called Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) “promises to significantly reduce delays and enhance safety by using precise signals from the Global Navigation Satellite System instead of those from traditional radar to pinpoint aircraft locations,” the FAA said, claiming that the NextGen technology “is nearly 10 times more accurate than radar.” It won’t be in place tomorrow, however, or even next year: The FAA said it expects ITT to have the system ready for use by 2010, and covering the entire country by 2013. Besides giving pilots accurate data on the location of their aircraft relative to others, the system will also provide them with weather information, terrain maps and flight information. Meanwhile, the FAA is pushing Congress to change the existing mechanisms for its funding, and the nation’s major airlines have unleashed a massive lobbying campaign promoting a new aviation fee system that would shift more of the tax burden from them to small planes like business jets that sue the same airspace but currently pay a lot less than airliners. Outgoing FAA chief Marion Blakey said in a speech last week that “despite the progress we’re making, our air traffic system is still not even close to what it needs to be…The system’s too old and it’s not nimble enough for today’s activity.”