ACI-NA Urges FAA to Address Shortfalls of ADS-B Plan

On March 3, ACI-NA filed comments with the Department of Transportation urging the Federal Aviation Administration to address certain shortcomings in the Notice of Proposed Rule Making for automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast/out (ADS-B). 

ACI-NA is concerned that the proposed rule is not clear enough in identifying advantages of the ADS-B system.  If the proposal were promulgated in its current form, it does not properly justify the cost of ADS-B/out equipage, treats ADS-B/in equipage as voluntary, fails to describe how certain signal quality limitations will be resolved and optimistically assumes that air carrier aircraft will be equipped with wide area augmentation system (WAAS) capability. 

It is ACI-NA’s view that, in order for further capacity expansion to take place in the national airspace system, the full ADS-B system must be deployed.  We noted that in many cases, the proposed rule is too vague. More detail must be provided in order to ensure the most effective tools are put into place. Specifically, we noted that the proposal falls short in outlining the procedures and equipment that will use ADS-B to support instrument approaches to runways separated by less then 4,300 feet. We encourage FAA to work with the airports and airlines and identify the industry benefits that will enable the swift equipage of NextGen-required equipment such as ADS-B.