The air traffic control (ATC) system is managed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide safe separation of aircraft over the United States and in and out of U.S. airports. ATA remains a strong vocal proponent of modernizing the ATC system. This section highlights various ATC-related activities of interest to the airline industry.
The three critical components of the National Airspace System - communications, navigation, and surveillance -- must be modernized if we are to maintain the world's largest, safest, and most efficient air transportation system.
While the basic design of the U.S. air traffic control system dates back to the 1950s, this design promises to present ever-growing concerns as demand for system capacity continues to rise.
ATA Vice President, Operations and Safety Basil Barimo contributed an article entitled "Shaping the Future ATC System" in a recent issue of the Flight Safety Foundation magazine AeroSafety World.
TAs are generated by ATM computers and consider local traffic, weather, terrain, noise restrictions, and the aircraft's own capabilities to obtain an optimal route and an exact touchdown time for arriving aircraft.
SWIM is a future information-management architecture that will manage surveillance, flight and weather data, and other National Airspace System data to all users.
The air traffic system is severely constrained. ATA offers these guiding principles on how the system can keep pace with user demand.
ATA member airlines support a transition to an ADS-B surveillance system. Find out more about how it works and why FAA considers it the cornerstone of their Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).
FAA produced a NextGen video that tracks how the same flight would be handled with the current ATC system versus modernized airspace management system.
ATA issued a statement commenting on the FAA Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).