As Prepared for Delivery

Thanks Chip.  I'm glad to be here.

• I want to congratulate SkyWest for being named by Forbes as one of “America’s Best Employers.”
• I also want to thank you for serving on the FAA’s NextGen Advisory Committee and Equip 2020.  You’re bringing the perspective of the regional carriers to this important work. 
• I’m glad to be here as RAA celebrates its 40^th anniversary.

Today, I’d like to talk about:

• The last 40 years
• How industry has changed
• How safety has changed
• I’d like to talk about NextGen
• Then I’ll take questions.

Deregulation / Mergers / 9-11

• RAA’s existence as an organization traces the path of the industry since deregulation.
• It’s been a tumultuous 40 years.
• We’ve seen the advent of the hub-and-spoke system – of which regionals are such an important part.
  - Regional carriers now make up more than 50 percent of all airline flights.
  - Your service is essential – especially to small communities.
• Since deregulation we’ve seen the invention – and rapid growth – of the low-cost airline, which have led to a dramatic growth in air travel, but also significant disruption in the industry.
• We’ve seen mergers, failures, reorganizations in bankruptcy, more mergers.
• For employees, it’s been 40 years of turmoil.
  - I started at TWA, went through 1.5 bankruptcies.
  - Then I joined United Airlines at the height of profitability – and the beginning of the ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) – an innovative new ownership structure ….until it too filed Chapter 11 after 9/11.
• We’ve seen hubs come and go – St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland – all a challenge for an agency that funds much of that airport construction. 

Safety Advancements

• But the last four decades have also seen extraordinary safety advancements thanks to the FAA and industry working together.
• After a series of accidents in the 1990’s, we drovedown commercial fatal accident risk by 83% between 1998-2008, largely through CAST (the Commercial Aviation Safety Team).
• When you hear numbers like that, it’s hard to get your head around it. 
• But to say it more simply – last year there were no fatalities.  The year before, there were no fatalities.  During this time, 1.4 billion passengers flew in the United States.
• In fact, there hasn’t been a fatal accident on a U.S. commercial passenger carrier in over six years now. 

New Safety Approach

• The success has also meant we’ve had to change the way we mitigate safety risk.
• The old system was forensic – investigate accidents, find what went wrong, change procedures.
• The new system is proactive – we have developed a risk-based decision making approach.
  - We collect safety data.
  - We analyze the data to determine high risk areas.
  - Then we direct resources toward mitigating the identified risk.
• Our data comes from many sources – air traffic controllers, airway technicians, the airlines, commercial pilots, GA pilots, mechanics, dispatchers and other sources.
• Through the FAA’s ASIAS program, we’ve collected more than 160,000 voluntary safety reports by commercial airline pilots, including pilots that fly for 19 RAA members.  We’d like to see all 29 RAA members submit safety reports as part of this process.
• Your data has supported our ability to identify the underlying contributing factors that can give rise to accidents.  For example:
• We’re learning more about the factors that contribute to runway excursions, and also loss of control in flight due to a loss of airplane state awareness. 
• To mitigate these factors, the FAA and industry have collectively developed several safety enhancements including in the areas of flight crew training, aircraft equipment, and aviation operational procedures.     
• We can’t make these improvements without your data.
• I ask you to continue to submit your data – and encourage your pilots, dispatchers, maintenance crews and cabin crews to submit reports.  Those of you who don’t participate in ASIAS, I encourage you to do so.
• Through the Air Carrier Training ARC – we’re looking at voluntary initiatives to improve training.  The ARC has recommended ways to improve pilot knowledge and skills to manage the flight path of the airplane.  This work is also helping us to address the risk of pilot skill atrophy as the reliance on flight deck automation grows.

Lessons from Colgan: 1500 hour rule

• But even as we take a proactive approach, we’re still applying lessons from accidents.
• As I mentioned, the last accident by a U.S. passenger carrier in the U.S. was over six years ago – that was of course Colgan Air in Buffalo in 2009.
• Because it was a regional carrier it brought a bright spotlight on your segment of the industry.
• Following that accident, Congress enacted the Airline Safety and FAA Extension Act of 2010 to enhance flight safety. 
• One provision in the law requires that all first officers have an Airline Transport Pilot certificate, or ATP. 
• It takes 1,500 flight hours to obtain an ATP. 
• Let me be clear – The FAA did not enact this rule.  We simply codified what Congress put into law.  This was not the normal rule making process. 
• The FAA was given authority to make some adjustments to the law, and we issued a rule giving pilots credit for structured academic and military training, so they can meet the standard with fewer than 1,500 hours.   
• I know this is an important issue for RAA, and the FAA is open to discussing ways to strengthen the pilot pipeline, but this will require cooperation from across the industry.
• I mentioned the ACT ARC earlier – they have a working group focused on ways to develop alternative education, training and experience pathways to qualify for an ATP certificate.  We look forward to their recommendations.  

Pilot Fatigue

• In response to another Congressional direction, the FAA also enacted a rule to address pilot fatigue.
• We used fatigue studies to help us update the flight and duty rules in a way that helps ensure a flight crew member arrives at work rested and ready to fly.
• In this regard, I want to note the work of RAA, along with Air Wisconsin and Washington State University, on completing a flight simulator study on pilot fatigue in multi-segment operations. 
  - The study compared the alertness of pilots completing duty days with multiple take-offs and landings versus duty days of equal duration with a single takeoff and landing. 
  - This research will further our understanding of the science of fatigue in flight operations. 

Full Stall Training/Simulators

• The Colgan accident, along with other accidents and incidents, also highlighted that pilots should have more experience in recognizing the cues of an actual stall, and to reinforce their ability to recover from that stall. 
• New rules require that air carriers implement training programs by 2018 to address the recognition, prevention, and recovery from full stalls. 
• To complement this requirement, we’re looking at what rule changes should be made with regard to flight simulators.  Current rules for simulators required that pilots be trained and evaluated up to the stall warning, but not up to the full stall.  So we’re proposing improvements to simulator models so they can be used to train pilots to recover from a full stall.   
• These changes will enable us to mitigate many of the factors that contributed to loss of control accidents.       

NextGen progress

• Safety is always our first priority, but as Deputy Administrator, one of my statutory roles is to serve as the agency’s Chief NextGen Officer.
• I’m proud to say that we’ve made significant progress in the last year.  We finalized the deployment of automation upgrades at 20 high altitude air traffic control centers across the continental United States.   
  - With ERAM in place, we’re able to process more air traffic data, more efficiently, from more sensors. 
  - En route controllers using ERAM can now track 1,900 aircraft at a time, instead of the previous 1,100. 
  - And ERAM provides all 20 control centers with the same access to all flight plans filed in the system.  Transitions between sectors and centers will be automatic, even when planes divert from their planned course.  All of this means increased capacity and improved efficiency for the U.S. airspace system. 
• We’re also in full production mode with similar automation upgrades in our terminal air traffic control facilities – TRACONs.
• These upgrades set us up to deliver greater NextGen benefits including through ADS-B – the core technology that moves us from a radar-based system to a satellite-based system.  This technology enables more efficient separation of aircraft and provides coverage where radar is lacking, like in the mountains and over water.  Last year, we completed the installation of 634 ground transceivers that make up the infrastructure for ADS-B – another major milestone. 
• Completing this foundation will enable us to deliver more advanced NextGen capabilities to users of the system.
• We’re working to deliver benefits in four priority areas in the next 1-3 years.  These four areas are:
  - Increasing the availability and use of Performance Based Navigation
  - Improving surface operations
  - Implementing Data Communications, and 
  - Making multiple runway operations more efficient.
• We agreed on these priorities in collaboration with the aviation industry through our NextGen Advisory Committee, or NAC, as we call it.
• We believe, and industry agrees, that progress in these areas can benefit all of us in the near term.
• The FAA’s Metroplex initiative is a good example of our efforts to implement Performance-based Navigation.
  - This past year, we implemented scores of new performance-based procedures in the Houston, North Texas and Washington D.C. metro areas. 
  - For example, in Houston, we put in place 60 new performance-based procedures, and results show an annual savings of $6 million from reduced fuel consumption.  
• In support of making multiple runway operations more efficient, we safely reduced wake separation standards at many airports including in Atlanta … Louisville … Cincinnati … Houston … Charlotte … and New York. 
  - Because of this change, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport has increased the number of planes that can land by up to 5 percent, which translates into about five more planes per hour.
  - And Delta Air Lines is saving up to two minutes of outbound taxi time per flight, and saving between $13 million to $18 million dollars in operating costs annually.   
• One technology that especially applies to regional carriers is the Wide Area Augmentation System, or WAAS, which is a process of fine tuning the GPS signal over a wide area. 
  - WAAS enables pilots to conduct precise approaches at airports when visibility to the runway is reduced due to bad weather or other conditions. 
  - It’s beneficial for aircraft that need access to smaller and medium-sized airports that can’t afford expensive ground-based landing equipment. 
  - NextGen procedures are dramatically less expensive to implement than traditional procedures that require costly ground equipment.
  - Nationwide, we’ve already published about 4,000 of these WAAS procedures at about 1,700 airports.
  - I know Horizon Air’s fleet is equipped with WAAS, and they’re realizing fuel-saving benefits through the use of these approaches.    

Equipage

• With the ADS-B ground stations installed, and ERAM complete, we’re looking forward to the next major milestone, which is ADS-B Out equipage by 2020. 
• The FAA issued a rule in 2010 requiring the fleet to equip with ADS-B avionics by January 1, 2020.  This deadline is certain.  It will not change.  It’s an important milestone to keep NextGen on track.    
• Last October, the FAA held an industry call to action on ADS-B equipage.  From that event, the FAA stood up the Equip 2020 working group – a public-private group that is working to identify barriers to equipage and provide solutions for airspace users.  SkyWest is a participant in this group.
• Since Equip 2020 started, we’re seeing a lot of momentum.  The four major airlines that sit on the NAC have publicly declared they will meet the 2020 deadline – Delta, American, Jet Blue, and FedEx.  Each of these major airlines has a plan for equipage.
• The cost of equipage for General Aviation has also dropped significantly, and we’ve seen a sharp uptick in equipage here. 

Call to Action: Be Part of the Solution 

• We know that regional carriers face particular equipage challenges – (e.g. whether you should retrofit older aircraft or phase them out in favor of buying new rule-compliant aircraft by the deadline.)      
• I encourage you to ensure your airline has a plan.
• Through Equip 2020, you can help influence what solutions are coming out. 
  - You can work in collaboration with major carriers, as well as manufacturers and suppliers, to address these issues together.
  - In fact, Equip 2020 is forming a working group to provide equipage solutions for legacy aircraft like the regional’s CRJ-200 and ERJ-145.
  - We stand ready to work with you.

In closing

• The RAA is a key part of the aviation industry.  You’ve persevered through a lot of change in the past 40 years.
• I want to thank RAA for:
  - working with us on the Commercial Aviation Safety Team …
  - for working with us in various rulemaking committees …  
  - for submitting safety data through ASIAS, and all of your efforts to ensure safety.
  - And for working with us on the NAC.
• The FAA is also committed to expanding our delivery of benefits through NextGen.  To do it, we’d like to see industry equip sooner rather than later.  We’re working with industry to spur more rapid equipage.
• Thank you for your participation at this conference.  
• I’m happy to take questions.