Incentivizing avionics equipage for the next generation air transportation system (NextGen)

The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) has been researching the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) avionics equipage incentives for a number of years, and through industry and government discussions, we have seen the perspectives of many National Airspace System (NAS) stakeholders. We believe that summary information on these perspectives should be documented and shared, in order to better inform NextGen policy decision making. We see challenges that, if addressed, would improve the chances of government incentive program successes in motivating NextGen equipage investments. We also believe that activities launched as a result of the recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) re-authorization offer an opportunity to advance NextGen equipage. Accordingly, the purpose and key objectives of this paper are: (a) To inform stakeholder decision makers as to options and implications of different incentives strategies, including operational, financial and regulatory approaches, and (b) To illustrate how intended stakeholder behaviors may or may not be influenced by incentives strategies, by providing a hypothetical walk-through of the commercial aircraft operator decision process. The paper concludes with suggested research questions and proposed next steps.