Many National Business Travel Association convention attendees cut out on the morning of the last day to avoid overbooked fights and delays, but I tend to stick around for the final education sessions. Along with a few stragglers, I attended the Federal Aviation Administration panel discussion last Wednesday hoping to gain a bit more clarity or information on the
next-generation air traffic control system (NextGen), or to learn something new. Thirty-four slides later, I hadn't.
Business Travel Coalition (BTC) and FlyersRights.org today applauded FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt’s decision to require FAA staff to cease referring to airlines customers of the agency,
long a concern of travel organizations. The dysfunction caused by this misguided notion of airlines-as-customer is deeply rooted in FAA culture; the Customer Service Initiative was merely one manifestation.
Bloomberg News reported yesterday: “FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, who has been in his job for less than four months, said at a news conference today, ‘When we say customer, we’re talking about the flying public. There has been some confusion in the past.’ ”
The Federal Aviation Administration's efforts toward air traffic control modernization finally are on the right track, at least according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. But the U.S. departments of Homeland Security and Defense still have much work to do.
Re:
5Q With Sharon Pinkerton
Please note that Pinkerton misrepresents the environmental damage that the FAA's airspace redesign and other Port Authority initiatives would generate in the [New York] metro area. In addition, the only effective way to address delays is through demand management. Below is the New Jersey Coalition Against Aircraft Noise's (NJCAAN) recent call that the Port Authority conduct a comprehensive study of its airport expansion scheme.
