The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Executive Director & COO Bill Connors sent a letter to Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Vice Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) of the Senate Committee on Appropriations encouraging the inclusion of funding for the Federal Aviation Committee’s Next Generation Air Transportation System or NextGen in the Senate’s economic stimulus package.

“The implementation of NextGen is vital to the future of the airline industry and the business travel community. The business community and business travel is dependent on a transportation network that is efficient and safe. NextGen promises to deliver that with trajectory based operations, collaborative air traffic management, and reduced travel delays resulting from weather.

Without NextGen there will be gridlock in the skies. By 2022, it is estimated that this failure would cost the U.S. economy $22 billion annually in lost economic activity. That number grows to over $40 billion by 2033 if action is not taken. The FAA reports that without some of the initial elements of NextGen simulations show that as early as 2015 delays will be far greater than what we are seeing today.

The purpose of this stimulus package should be to stimulate our economy and get business moving. Adding funding for NextGen projects does just that.”

NBTA and 11 other organizations from the commercial and general aviation community submitted a letter to Congress earlier this month requesting stimulus funding to jumpstart NextGen by equipping aircraft with necessary technologies. See letter. Legislation passed in the House this week contains significant funding to several transportation priorities of critical importance to NBTA and its membership. Inclusion of NextGen funding would compliment the package, increasing mobility and the ease of commerce, as well as creating 77,000 jobs for the American public.

NBTA urges the Senate to pass the stimulus bill including funds designed to speed the implementation of next generation airspace redesign and hopes that final legislation can be signed by President Obama in the coming weeks.