about the conference

"Managing the Competing Demands within the National Airspace System"


The 2008 Competition for the Sky Conference, “Managing the Competing Demands within the National Airspace System (NAS)” is an integrated educational, networking and social event focusing on competing operational demands in the NAS. Delegates attending the Conference will gain insight and guidance from system regulators and users regarding NAS operations and requirements.

Protecting the safety and improving the efficiency of the NAS are absolute priorities for users, operators, and regulators. Join us in Las Vegas from September 29th to October 2nd, 2008 as we identify objectives and strategies to satisfy competing demands for airspace while maintaining and enhancing the safety and efficiency of the NAS.

For the first time, this conference will bring together federal, state and local authorities, alongside military, commercial and private NAS users. The event will provide a clear understanding on relevant issues concerning shared utilization of the NAS in order to provide policymakers with a common understanding of related issues. Some of the topics include, but are not limited to, Marking and Lighting, Wind Turbines, Crane Operations, Airport Encroachment/Zoning, and Radar Interference. Protecting the airspace is a common factor and the conference is designed to voice future strategies to ensure the NAS is protected now and in the future.

Who Should Attend

More than 450 delegates are expected, including:

Transparency: How the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is utilizing electronic means to share aeronautical data and encourage a common operating system for users both on the ground and in the air.

Collaboration: How the FAA is working with the competing demands on the diminishing natural resource that is the NAS, to ensure that: (1) the NAS is not diminished in capacity and efficiency; (2) efforts are continued to build partnerships with Stakeholders in order to ensure that all interest are recognized, understood and considered in a course in an aeronautical study; (3) all Stakeholders come together at the same table to derive at favorable determinations that allows for proposed construction and does not diminish the NAS; (4) building partnerships with Industry Groups to address growing trends and creating new processes to preserve and protect the NAS, today and in the future.

Preservation: The NAS is not infinite; however the NAS is neither well defined nor transparent. Learn how the FAA is preserving the NAS, while still defining all the components that compete with all the interests on the ground.

Protection: This is the FAA’s number one priority, to protect the National Airspace System.

We value our vendors as partners in the effort to protect the NAS.

The conference brings NAS stakeholders together to identify individual objectives and strategies to satisfy competing user demands while maintaining and enhancing safety and efficiency of the NAS:

"Managing the Competing Demands within the National Airspace System (NAS)"

The NAS is the most complex aviation system in the world - consisting of thousands of people, procedures, facilities, and pieces of equipment - that enables safe and expeditious air travel in the United States and over large portions of the world's oceans.

The NAS requires 14,500 air traffic controllers, 4,500 aviation safety inspectors, and 5,800 technicians to operate and maintain services. It has more than 19,000 airports and 600 air traffic control facilities. In all, there are 41,000 NAS operational facilities. In addition, there are over 71,000 pieces of equipment, ranging from radar systems to communication relay stations. On average, about 50,000 flights use NAS services each day.