Bom dia a todos. Thank you for the warm introduction. It is a pleasure to be here in Brazil. This is my first time in your lovely country and my first time flying into Guarulhos. It’s very impressive, and I congratulate you on all of the recent improvements you’ve made, especially the opening of Terminal 3, the new passenger terminal.
The United States and Brazil have long been leaders in civil aviation. We honor the vision, passion, and perseverance of our aviation pioneers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, and Alberto Santos Dumont. These talented men contributed greatly to our early knowledge of flight.
Brazil and the United States have strong ties, including an agreement for cooperation in aviation that has been a highlight of our bilateral relationship and an example for other sectors of the economy. This helps us maintain a productive relationship between our nations and provide aviation leadership jointly within the Western Hemisphere. There’s good reason to do this. We both have strong aviation manufacturing programs, large aviation sectors, and complex airspace systems.
The increase in air traffic between the United States and Brazil is expected to grow at 6.5 percent per year between now and 2025. And, it is no longer only tourist travel –it is also now business travelers. This is a reflection of the growing interconnectedness of our economies. The growth of traffic overall between the U.S. and Latin America will likely outpace the growth between the United States and other regions, even the fast-growing Asia Pacific region.
Our Aviation Partnership gives us an opportunity to capitalize on this expansion, and to embrace the inherent link and the common heritage in our hemisphere. In addition, we have a joint commitment to share safety data proactively through the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing program, and other mechanisms, and to the legal protection of such data.
I have listened this morning with great interest to the discussion on Brazil’s airport study. And, I applaud the forward thinking that you are doing here in Brazil on airport development. Airports are the gateways to locations near and far. It is in the airport where we experience all facets of our global village: vacationers, business travelers, students departing to study abroad, or people traveling to far off lands to visit family. And airports are the place where all parts of aviation converge. You saw this with the successful World Cup Games this June and July, and you will have the same experience when you host the Olympics here in 2016.
My experience with the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City was similar. Effective airport infrastructure was vital to the success of the Games. Utah airports were the face of the Olympics. Your airports will be the first and last impression that travelers will have when entering and leaving Brazil in 2016.
And, it’s not just applicable to special events. We all know the importance of aviation and airports to the global economy. Airports big and small are part of this economic engine – they contribute to local, national, and global economies alike. Aviation and airports fuel jobs and trade for millions of people.
In the United States, airports are owned and operated by various sponsors – cities, states and regions. My agency supports airports by providing grants to a variety of airports for development and improvement projects through the Airport Improvement Program. This program, which is funded through ticket and fuel taxes, has allowed us to issue billions of dollars of grants to ensure that airport infrastructure in the United States remains state-of-the-art. Because of these grants, airports throughout the country have successfully completed many development projects. This has included refurbishing or extending runways, taxiways and aprons.
Some U.S. airports have also received grants to enhance runway safety areas, to build and improve airport terminals, and to reduce environmental impacts. These improvements are crucial to the enhanced safety and efficiency of U.S. airspace, and to meet the demands of a growing and changing airspace. They are critical to preserving our airport infrastructure, and for helping expand the benefits of aviation modernization.
Just as infrastructure on the ground is important, we cannot overlook investment in infrastructure in the air. A modernized air traffic system also creates more efficient and safer operations in and around airports. For example, in the United States, we have improved infrastructure and built new capabilities at airports throughout the country to move more aircraft efficiently.
The Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, is our program for modernization, and it is about creating a more efficient, environmentally sound, and ultimately safer aviation system. It is helping us evolve from the ground-based radar system of today to a satellite-based system of tomorrow. So, while in certain areas where airport infrastructure expansion may be limited, we can continue to utilize more effective and efficient arrival and departure procedures to more precisely utilize the existing airspace, especially in busy metropolitan areas.
Many technologies are making NextGen a reality. Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast —or ADS-B – is one of the foundations of NextGen. We have completed the installation of more than 630 ADS-B ground stations across the United States. This surveillance capability is now available everywhere that radar is available, and in some places where radar cannot function, such as over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and in mountainous regions.
ADS-B transmits the location of aircraft to controllers and other ADS-B equipped aircraft with a faster update rate than radar. This infrastructure will improve the efficiency of our airports through better approaches and departures, and better routes in busy metropolitan areas. Newer technologies are also used by air traffic controllers at airports to track surface movement of aircraft and vehicles. These allow better and more efficient operations between aircraft and other vehicles on airport grounds, and help reduce the possibility of runway incursions.
With NextGen, more precise departure and arrival paths will optimize routing and operations, especially for congested metropolitan areas, and improve access to locations previously challenged by land-based navigation. My agency works with airports, airlines, air traffic controllers, and other federal agencies to improve air traffic flow around all of the airports in busy metropolitan areas with multiple airports.
These more efficient routes in turn lessen the environmental impact of aviation. A more direct approach or departure will reduce emissions, a benefit to us all. We must focus on aviation’s impact on the environment. And, as we do this, we must ensure that our approach is balanced. The agreement reached last year at the ICAO Assembly to pass a resolution to address environmental impact with market-based measures is a sound approach. Our governments worked together closely on this solution, and it is one that we can be proud of as we move forward on a global level.
We also see the need for alternative fuel solutions to address environmental and economic issues. The FAA is actively involved with industry under the Continuous Lower Energy Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) program, to conduct tests to demonstrate the use of alternative fuels. Brazil is a pioneer in alternative fuels for cars and increasingly for aircraft, and our governments have signed an agreement under which we cooperate in the development and certification of alternative fuels for aviation. We must encourage other governments to take similar steps to ensure a solid, proactive way to address the need for more efficient fuel sources. The steps you have taken with alternative fuels, not only in aviation, but in transportation in general, are to be commended.
As aviation brings the far reaches of the globe closer and closer together, we have much to celebrate. This is especially true within our own hemisphere. We have experienced phenomenal growth over the decades, and airports continue to play a key role in this development. As the famous saying goes, a mile of road takes you one mile. A mile of runway can take you anywhere in the world. We must never underestimate the value that airports bring to communities, nations, and to the global economy.
Thank you, again, for your kind invitation. Muito Obrigado.