The FAA is only seeing benefits from a fraction of the initiatives an advisory group proposed two years ago to ease congestion in the New York region, but this lack of progress is partly due to the long-term nature and impracticality of some of the recommendations.

While the FAA claims it has completed 30 of the 77 New York airport and airspace initiatives, a recent report by the U.S. Transportation Dept.’s Inspector General found that benefits have been seen in just five. The list of actions was compiled by an aviation rulemaking committee (ARC) in December 2007.

Most of the 30 “completed” initiatives are either not used or used infrequently, the IG said. As well as the five that have proven useful, nine are used on a limited basis only, 13 need more work to resolve problems, and three have been discontinued. “Since these issues affect over half of the 30 initiatives, we question their viability as effective delay-reduction solutions,” the report said.

The 13 issues requiring extra work have operational or technical problems, need further testing, or have prompted objections from controllers. The three that were discontinued were due to airline concerns.

The 47 initiatives yet to be addressed “face a number of challenges,” such as the need for new equipment or training, “questionable practicality,” and litigation. Many of these are part of FAA’s broader NextGen modernization plans.

FAA lacks an effective process for assessing the usefulness of the individual initiatives, and this has prevented the agency from validating their technical feasibility or weighing benefits versus costs, the report found. Among its recommendations, the IG urged FAA to reassess completed initiatives and evaluate remaining actions on the list “to determine what, if any, benefits they provide.”

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