US Airways remains leader in NextGen

US Airways remains committed to being a leader in NextGen, the US effort to establish a new-technology air traffic management system.

US Airways flight technical operations captain Brian Townsend told attendees at the Avionics for NextGen Conference Sept. 13 that the carrier "remains focused as a NextGen leader.”

The airline has been performing trials using Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology in 20 Airbus A330s and two simulators, at its hub at Philadelphia International Airport, under a five-year FAA/ACSS memorandum of agreement.

"One of the advantages for selecting A330s is that we are able to train all the pilots on the ADS-B applications. It is now capturing the numbers on performance based navigation and the company is pleased with what they're seeing", Townsend said.

Townsend said the next steps will be to make certain that standards and requirements are well thought out and established, to find a viable mechanism or path that permits early equipage, and be willing to take incremental steps."It's not a revolution, it's an evolution," he said.

Some of the "low-hanging fruit" which may be easier to "pick" at first, he said may be CDTI Assisted Visual Separation/CDTI-Enhanced Delegated Separation (CAVS/CEDS), as there would be little or no change to current visual operations and phraseology. "CAVS/CEDS has the potential to provide early benefits and establish a foundation for ADS-B."