Beyond the Metro Area Redesign

The FAA has effectively abandoned the over budget and behind schedule Metro Airspace Redesign. While it had many technical flaws, the associated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) provided public documentation of planned air traffic routes and their impact. However, outside the scope of the Redesign, the FAA has been "experimenting" with routes based on satellite navigation.

Unfortunately, the agency is attempting to circumvent meaningful environmental assessment for these new procedures by declaring them subject to a Categorical Exclusion (CatEx). This turns on problematic statutory language in the FAA Modernization & Reform Act of 2012 that defines when a CatEx is appropriate.