U.S. airlines and the FAA, both strapped for cash for the foreseeable future, are settling further into a year-old trend toward cautious, lower cost approaches to increasing the capacity of the National Airspace System (NAS). They recognize that the current slump in air travel demand means the system will tolerate a reduced rate of capacity enhancement for the next few years, and they realize that for lack of resources, they could do little about it if this were not so. Thus they are focusing on process and technique over major investments in infrastructure and aircraft equipment. They will try to improve their collaboration on air traffic management (ATM) decision-making, and the FAA will try to develop NAS redesign into a steady, ongoing capacity-builder rather than a finger-in-the-dike stopgap.
展开▼
