2009 Annual Report - RTCA

RTCA Committee Activities
Air Traffic Management Advisory Committee
The Air Traffic Management Advisory Committee (ATMAC), composed of executive level representatives
from across the aviation community, advises the FAA on aviation policies and investment priorities for
enhancing the safety, capacity, and efficiency of the National Airspace System. The ATMAC functions as
a Federal advisory committee with meetings open to the public.
ATMAC recommendations address the many critical challenges of planning, building, and running a
safe and efficient air traffic management system. The ATMAC provides a single mechanism for the
FAA to obtain consensus-driven input from a broad spectrum of the aviation community on topics
ranging from operational requirements driven by unmet needs and associated with desired benefits,
to overall investment priorities and policy considerations.
The ATMAC met five times during 2009 and the major ATMAC initiative was to provide feedback and
guidance to the NextGen Mid-Term Implementation Task Force (highlighted in the following section)
as it completed its work and to facilitate the post-Task Force integration of the Task Force recommendations
and the FAA’s NextGen implementation plans.
In 2009 actions, ATMAC agreed to establish the NextGen Implementation Work Group to provide a
two-way communication between industry and the FAA, with industry providing clarification to the
FAA regarding any aspect of the recommendations of the Task Force, and the FAA ensuring that
industry understands fully how the Task Force recommendations are integrated into its NextGen
Implementation Plan. Furthermore, the ATMAC agreed to establish the NextGen Business Case Work
Group to provide critical input on how to close the business case for NextGen. Finally, in response
to an FAA request, ATMAC established the Trajectory Operations Work Group to develop a concept
of use for trajectory operations— a cornerstone of NextGen that represents a transition of air traffic
management from clearance-based control to trajectory-based management of aircraft.
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RTCA • 2009 Annual Report