Inside the Fence
Sorting through the mental debris from a road full of Washington meetings and hours waiting for delayed airline flights ...
John F. Infanger, Editorial Director
August 2000
One gets the impression from hearing FAA officials recently that they are indeed up against a challenge to disseminate the expected FY2001 Airport Improvement Program monies of $3.2 billion. 'Tis a noble challenge, they say, and a task to which they will prove able - even if agency staffing levels remain relatively fixed while what they oversee grows.
Meanwhile, in the audience, a whisper is heard that cautions of raised eyebrows in Congress if an industry clamoring for years for more dollars isn't able to effectively spend it when given. It's a reason FAA is calling for industry help in getting the money appropriately dispersed. That means getting grant requests to FAA in order and in early.
It also means helping the agency figure out how best to distribute new general aviation airport grant funds. GA facilities that never might have received funding otherwise now have an opportunity. Agency officials recognize environmental impact studies and other in-depth airport planning efforts cannot realistically be part of this process. The question: How does FAA simplify the grant process for an airport that may only receive $1,000 to $150,000? As one official observed: "Congress didn't expect us to overburden these communities."
One answer being considered is to have small airports in a region pool their eligible projects into a single grant. Another may be to learn from the successful pavement agreements in which private firms manage the maintenance programs for smaller airports in a given state.
Another player in this process may be the National Air Transportation Association, which wants to keep its American Aviation Access Initiative moving forward. It's latest move: "Create a buzz" in the industry by having airports and businesses nominate America's Most Needed airports. That is, NATA is putting out a call for industry to help it identify within the next four months the nation's top 100 airport projects that will best serve the goal of improving the national system.
The NATA plan then calls for sorting through the nominations and announcing the "winners" on Dec. 17, the anniversary of the Wright Brothers' inaugural flight. If successful, the program could become an annual event, say officials.
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Meanwhile, FAA has unveiled its proposed rewrite of the certification requirements for FAR Part 139, which governs commercial airports. David Bennett, the man leading this charge at FAA, took time recently to discuss the NPRM. His thoughts appear on page 42.
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Finally ... If two large airlines can't currently meet the needs of their customers, how will merging them make them any better at it? If airlines are under investigation for predatory pricing at their major hubs, how is bringing more hub locations under fewer carriers going to increase competition? If there's only one airline left to fill gates at a U.S. airport, is the airport still seen as anti-competitive?
And, if United merges with U.S. Airways, does this mean my luggage now can be expected to divert through Pittsburgh at no extra charge?
Thanks for reading.
