Accomplishing equipage for NextGen

The benefits of Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) depend heavily on avionics, but building business cases for operators to expend funds for avionics retro-fit equipage is often very challenging; operators tend to require short times for return on investment and low risk. When the benefits of equipping involve Air Traffic Management (ATM), they are dependent on successful transition of one or many of automation, infrastructure, routes and procedure design, and the equipage of other aircraft — each the responsibility of stakeholders other than the equipping operator. To be successful, ongoing and future transitions involving avionics must be planned based on the way operator Value depends on breadth of aircraft Equipage. This must consider existing equipage and benefits independent of ATM changes, the nature of mixed equipage operations and benefits, and the allocation of benefits during transition. The economic relationships between Value and the Equipage are a strong determinant for what strategies for motivating equipage will be effective. For NextGen ATM-related avionics, risk avoidance, collaborative risk reduction, and performance-based operational incentives (operationally justified procedures implementing Best-Equipped Best-Served) will be essential to these transitions.