The Other Side of NextGen

Don Brown from Get the Flick has an interesting commentary on an Associated Press article published today. That article claims that airlines could be saving billions if NextGen were implemented now. They back up these assertions with their own "analysis of federal and industry data." The sweeping statements made by the AP are frustrating at best, and Don does a good job of picking them apart. While the technological advancements represented by NextGen are intuitively appealing, they are by no means a panacea for the terminally flawed hub and spoke model.

Simply put, the article and the AP oversimplify the implementation of a highly complex and yet to be proven system. AOPA has some good information on the issue, so do some homework…