In her presentation at the 29th Annual FAA Forecast Conference in March, FAA associate administrator of airports Woodie Woodward offered attendees a look at future capacity at the nation's airports out to 2020. Her associate, FAA deputy associate administrator of airports Catherine Lang, expands on Woodward's comments during a phone interview with AIRPORT BUSINESS. Following is an edited transcript.

AIRPORT BUSINESS : What data was used for this study?

Catherine Lang : We used the conventional tools thatthe agency always does and the typical way we do it is to look at thebusiest airports, and see where they are in terms of their abilityto meet future demand and at what expense of delay. So that's kindof a bottoms-up approach.

This study also did a top-down approach in which we looked at a variety of socioeconomic factors and ran some different market-based models. The typical FAA way of doing things is to look at the existing airports and ask whether or not they have sufficient capacity. This study looked at the market and where the people will be, where the industries will be and then we said, and do we have sufficient aviation access in those locations.

This is the first time our office has used that method for this purpose.

AB : Why use a different approach?

Lang : Well, for one, the Administrator asked usto. When she first came into the FAA as the Administrator, especiallywith her experience in DOT, one of the questions was, As we think aboutthe demands the country will be facing over the next 20-30 years, dowe have airports in the right places? She really wanted us to, on one level, put the airports aside to begin with. They took a pretty wide cut at looking at metropolitan areas [300] and it's pretty fascinating looking at the results because a lot of the growth coming on in the country and a lot of the aviation infrastructure requirements are in the South and Southwest.

AB : What does the data tell us?

Lang : I think the most important message of thewhole study is that it is critical that we stay the course on plannedimprovements. And that means that for us to prevent an enormous amountof delay and capacity constraints in 2013 and 2020, a lot of the plansthat are on the books today have to happen.

And those are not just airport plans. It's investments that the FAA is planning to make in terms of airway facilities and air traffic equipment and procedures. This gives us a glimpse of the future, which clearly says the demand is coming and it's coming in some places that, from a national perspective, we probably weren't focused on. And to avoid congestion in the future, we need to stay the course on investments today and, in some locations, we need to make sure that plans are in fact developed and implemented or we won't be able to forestall that delay in the future.

AB : What did the study tell you about metropolitan areas that need capacity?