Our Mission

Goodbye Silos, Hello Synergy

The mobile phone you’re holding is more advanced than America’s air traffic control (ATC) system.

Like our current ATC system, mobile phones were developed decades ago. But the evolution of the device has been a continual gift to us consumers who enjoy the benefits of being armed with the most advanced technology. The many advantages include:
 

• The operating system is updated continually;

• There’s a fresh, new version unveiled on a consistent basis;

• It’s always being tweaked to be faster, more reliable, and always user-friendly.

We should be treating the automation platform - the nerve center - of our nation’s vital ATC system the same way.

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Current System Does Not Meet the Demands of Coming Growth​

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The landscape in which the Federal Aviation Administration currently manages its many old automation systems is dotted with silos. This duplicates effort and functionality, creates inconsistent data and poor interoperability, drives high maintenance costs, and slows the deployment of critical upgrades.

This environment was never designed to handle the volume, diversity, and speed of today’s air traffic. Nor does it meet the demands of the rapid growth that’s coming, with commercial spaceflight, drones, and advanced air mobility.

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We Should Seize This Great Opportunity

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Our aviation system is only growing larger and more complex. It’s also busier. Many Americans will see plenty of evidence of this when they travel during the upcoming holiday season. We need an ATC automation system that will handle the demand for air travel and airspace usage. 

One common automation system would serve as a modern, reliable, flexible nerve center where the work of managing our airspace and safely guiding aircraft more efficiently would take place. It would support all phases of flight, from the ground, through the climb, descent, and airport approaches, the en route sectors between airports, and airspace over the oceans. This system would increase innovation, accelerate the deployment of new capabilities, and enable faster and more informed decision-making in increasingly complex airspace environments.  

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We should seize this great opportunity of ATC modernization put forward by the Trump Administration to select and install a single automation platform.

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Benefits for All System Users and Operators

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The best thing we can do for our air traffic controllers - besides continuing to hire more of them - is to give them the modern tools they need to lighten their workload and help them to be even more productive than they already are. A new automation system would create earlier conflict alerts, resulting in fewer high stress moments. 

Pilots, airlines, airports, and new airspace entrants would also see benefits to a new automation system. For pilots, that includes cutting down on frequency congestion on the radios communicating with controllers and reduced taxi times on the airport surface. For airports and airlines, it would mean increasing runway capacity.

This Goal is Attainable, With Additional Action by Congress​

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Congress met the aviation moment earlier this year by passing important legislation that included a sizable and consequential down payment on a brand new air traffic control system. But the down payment does not cover a single automation platform that is the biggest and most important piece in the puzzle that is fitting together tomorrow’s technologies into today’s airspace management. It will take additional action by Congress to pay for it. 

If we can get the help of Congress to continue funding air traffic control system upgrades, we can ensure this busy holiday travel period is one of the last to be managed in a woefully outdated and inefficient environment.

Then we can finally say, goodbye silos and hello synergy.