FAA Mission for Instrument Flight Procedures

The FAA's National Airspace System (NAS) consists of an inventory of approximately 20,000 approach, arrival, departure, and en route instrument flight procedures (IFPs) utilized by over 44,000 flights within the United States and its territories on a daily basis. While originally only supporting conventional IFPs, or navigation using ground-based equipment, the NAS has evolved to include Performance Based Navigation (PBN) procedures, which are IFPs that use more precise satellite enabled navigation. This inventory of conventional and PBN procedures must be continuously evaluated as IFPs are added or canceled, navigational aids are implemented or discontinued, new obstacles are identified, airspace is redesigned, and the regulations governing the NAS evolve. The Terminal Area Route Generation Evaluation and Traffic Simulation (TARGETS) system is the FAA's enterprise solution that supports that mission and enables the NAS to continue to be the safest and most efficient airspace system in the world. See the TARGETS brochure with more information.