National Center of Excellence in Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR) is a consortium of eight universities contracted by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to provide research support on a wide variety of aviation issues. At UC Berkeley, NEXTOR encompasses both research funded under the NEXTOR II umbrella and other aviation-related work funded by NASA and various organizations, including:
- Aviation economics and operational performance
- Air traffic management
- Sustainability and fuel efficiency
- Aviation infrastructure reliability and maintainability
- Offers the AV12 Airport Systems Planning and Design (Annual Short Course)

NEXTOR research is improving everyday travel with a recent study improving how air traffic managers cope with unexpected delays and providing them with more predictable ways to manage arrival traffic at airports with adverse weather.

Students from the Airport Design class learn to design an airport from beginning to end by working in interdisciplinary teams, including students from computer science, city planning, and the full spectrum of engineering disciplines. In the last six ACRP national design competitions, UC Berkeley has placed in the top two five times.

The unmanned aircraft industry is growing rapidly and Berkeley teams are pushing the bounds of technology, airspace management, and policy for socially responsible drone use.

NEXTOR researchers have access to a variety of data to help further their research, including visualization of air traffic data obtained using NASA FACET.