On Tuesday the House and Senate approved a four-year reauthorization for funding putting an end to the series of 23 short-term extensions since 2007. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas was quoted as saying, "Now we're going to have four years of stability in this industry. It's a huge accomplishment." Accomplishment I agree with but stability? Perhaps the FAA will find some stability, but with recent news of more airline bankruptcies and potentially more mega-size airline mergers, the words stability and airline industry just don’t seem to go together right now.
Perhaps stability will come in other ways, and yes the FAA and industry should feel a sense of relief, and the FAA should be able to conduct appropriate business in the years ahead. The bill authorizes $63 billion for the FAA, $38.3 billion for FAA Operations. One important program we should see greater movement on is funding for the Next Generation of air traffic control. Reports state the FAA will spend about $1 billion a year on Nex-Gen.
What else can we expect – it’s hard to say. Which other FAA programs will we see move forward? I offer that on the airworthiness side we might see FAA Aviation Safety Inspector (ASI) travel increase resulting in surveillance activity increase. Maybe we’ll see movement with FAA ASI hiring as their own current staffing levels are examined, and FAA like industry sees huge numbers of staff becoming retirement eligible.
So yes, we all should feel a sense of relief and look ahead – even if it’s only four years. But stability in this industry??
