FAA Posts

All this time I thought it was my problem for not understanding the ins and outs of the airline world that have wreaked such havoc on aviation. I never seemed to stop shaking my head every time I read the next chapter from the Northwest or Delta or …

This story would actually be funny if it weren’t such a sad reminder of miserable state of air traffic control in Brazil. When Pope Benedict left Brazil on Sunday aboard an Alitalia flight, he wanted to send one final good will message to his follow…

Being a passenger on board an airplane that barely escapes becoming a pile of twisted metal and flesh would probably be enough to drive most men’s passions for air safety, at least that’s what I’d say about Joe Sharkey. Sharkey, the writer who happe…

Being married to a psychologist gives me a never-ending look at the insights those professionals use to tell when someone’s thinking has gone off kilter.  Take being neurotic for example. That’s when someone tries attacking a problem the same way – …

Since it’s a beautiful spring afternoon in Chicago – sunny, temperatures in the high 70s (around 25 for you Celsius folks) it seemed like the right time to blog a bit about a piece of aviation that’s not quite as serious as the FAA, user fees or bad…

Henry Ogrodzinski thinks the FAA’s Valentine’s Day funding legislation is “a solution in search of a problem.” He’s the president and CEO of NASAO, the National Association of State Aviation Officials. We caught up with Henry O, as his friends know …

When the City of Chicago’s Department of Aviation destroyed Meigs Field in the middle of the night a few years ago, it transformed KCGX into a poster child for the failure of both pro and anti-airport groups to work together successfully. With the f…

Air Line Pilots Association President John Prater recently painted a bleak picture of airline travel for the upcoming tourist season, “This summer is going to be brutal,” he told Air Transport World Online. Prater believes this summer will be a mes…

Airlines are Pulling Out All the Stops  FAA Administrator Marion Blakey expressed surprise recently at the heat her user-fee proposal generated so far with industry professionals, but also from Congress. Blakey was shocked … shocked mind you, at hea…

No one I know disagrees with the need to constantly upgrade the U.S. air traffic control system. We all know system demand is on the rise. We just disagree on who should pay, how much they should pay and whether of course the sky is actually falling…

With less than a year to go before long-running Aviation Trust Fund legislation expires, FAA administrator Marion Blakey has been developing some serious rhetoric about the need to fix a funding system no one else except the airlines seems to think …