This NASA segment focuses on the importance of air travel in today’s society. Currently, over 600 million people travel on airplanes and it is expected that over a billion people will use air transportation in the near future. Attention is turning to ways to improve what is an already crowded transportation system. A unique government and commercial plan develops the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NGATS. The Joint Planning Development Office (JPDO) is designing a multi-stage approach to not only handle an increase in the large number of passengers, but minimize air and noise pollution.