from Aviation Week:
The [Obama administration] budget framework mentions $800 million for the NextGen air traffic modernization effort, although it did not detail which programs this would cover or how much of an increase it represents.
The administration also dropped something of a bombshell in a footnote, saying the budget “proposes repealing some aviation excise taxes and [...]
Entries from February 2009
February 28, 2009
White house budget framework has $800m for NextGen, hints at user fees
February 24, 2009
Wired on MITRE & the NYC airspace redesign
Wired Magazine went behind the scenes at MITRE as part of a lengthy look at the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia airspace redesign project. The tone is neutral leaning towards boosterish, though at least one dissenting NATCA voice was included. A brief excerpt:
Controllers will start testing the new departure gates and arrival posts over the next two [...]
February 21, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: Bruce Holmes on the end of DayJet and the future of commercial aviation
If you’ve heard of DayJet Corporation, the JPDO, NASA’s Langley Research Center, or the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, then you know a little something about the career trajectory of Bruce Holmes. Over a 30-year period, Holmes went from flight instructor and test pilot, to aeronautical engineer, to a Chief Strategist role [...]
February 18, 2009
Unmanned Aircraft Systems get boost in North Dakota
From the Grand Forks (ND) Herald:
Opening more North Dakota airspace to unmanned aircraft will now be a priority for the Federal Aviation Administration, one of the agency’s top officials said Monday in Grand Forks.
By summer 2010, the agency should have a solution in place, said Hank Krakowski, the chief operating officer in charge of air [...]
February 18, 2009
Given capacity cuts, why is on-time performance not improving?
From Travel Weekly:
With fewer people flying aboard fewer planes, industry mavens could not agree on why most airlines’ on-time percentages have failed to improve significantly.
Major airlines as a group reported an improvement in on-time arrivals of 2.6 percentage points for 2008 compared with 2007, but analysts said they had expected better.
Though an improvement over [...]
February 4, 2009
Babbitt’s star rising quickly: WSJ
Wall Street Journal travel columnist Andy Paztor had this to say about Randy Babbitt:
Randy Babbitt, an aviation consultant and former head of the country’s largest union representing airline pilots, is being vetted by the White House as the next likely administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, according to several people familiar with the discussions.
Mr. Babbitt’s [...]
February 4, 2009
LaHood creates team to coordinate stimulus spending
DOT press release:
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that he has created a team at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to coordinate the Department’s role in President Obama’s economic recovery program. The team will ensure that economic recovery funding is rapidly made available for transportation infrastructure projects and that [...]
February 3, 2009
Washington Post: Unnamed source says Randy Babbitt candidate for top FAA job
It’s not exactly exemplary reporting, but someone told the Washington Post’s Sholnn Freeman that Randy Babbitt’s name has been added to the list of hopefuls under consideration for FAA Administrator.
A source familiar with the search process said new names are getting attention for the job, including Randy Babbitt, another former pilots’ union president. Babbitt recently [...]
February 3, 2009
LaHood emphasizes roads, transparency, no earmarks, oh, and NextGen too
DOT Secretary Ray LaHood spoke to the AP and other media in Peoria this week, and talked a little of this, a little of that.
LaHood said it is too soon to say which projects will be funded. But he said the plan is to get money to states for roads and mass transit as soon [...]
February 3, 2009
FAA updates NextGen Implementation Plan; emphasis on avionics
There’s a new plan in town, and it comes from the FAA. The current update to the NextGen Implementation Plan (summary here; full doc available here) outlines the agency’s implementation commitments for the next five years, locks in a set of capabilities that it aims to make operational by 2018, and lays out a roadmap [...]
