Nearly 50 percent of the nation’s commercial airline schedule today is operated by Regional Airlines. One of every five domestic airline passengers will travel on one of the 2,700 regional aircraft that serve around 658 cities across the U.S. In 470 of those cities regional airlines provide the only scheduled service. Regional Airlines make about 13,000 flights a day carrying about 160 million passengers a year. Looking after their best collective interesst is the Regional Airline Association (RAA), a business association headquartered in Washington, D.C. RAA represents members’ interests in Congressional hearings and before the Department of Transportation, the FAA and other agencies. Back a few decades these airlines were known as...

Sarah MacLeod welcomed everyone on Thursday, March 21 st in her usual spirited style. Ms. MacLeod as most of you know is executive director and a founder of the Aeronautical Repair Station Association. Throughout the day ARSA staff, industry representatives, and regulators provided updates to the membership regarding recent ARSA activities on the legislative and regulatory fronts, rulemaking updates, along with perspectives from EASA and CASA representatives.   John Hickey, Deputy Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety with the FAA, addressed the ARSA membership making several interesting comments worth repeating. Mr. Hickey shared, “We are in some very difficult times” and went on to describe how sequestration will recast...