FAA Alaska Safety Initiative Live Event

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Good morning everyone, and thank you for taking the time to be here with us today. 

I want to start by recognizing the Alaska aviation stakeholders and the FAA team who contributed a great amount of time and effort over the past year to create a concrete plan for improving safety for everyone who flies in Alaska. 

I’ve learned a lot of things in my four decades as an aviation professional. One of them is that safety cannot be dictated from above—it must be a partnership.

Our Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative is a true partnership, in every sense of the word. 

We teamed up with the flying community to develop this comprehensive blueprint for our future safety work. The recommendations in the initiative’s final report are from the people who fly here every day, and who operate the airports that are lifelines for communities throughout the state.

The seriousness with which the flying community took this effort was clear from the start. More than 100 stakeholders attended a May 2021 virtual meeting when we presented the FAA’s current and planned safety efforts in Alaska. 

Throughout the spring and summer, we hosted a dozen more virtual meetings with pilots, trade associations, airports, and state officials to get their thoughts on what we’re currently doing and what else we should be doing.

Now, because of this partnership, we have a set of thoughtful, specific recommendations about how to improve safety in this state, where more than 80 percent of communities are accessible only by air travel. 

Among these recommendations are increasing and improving weather data reporting and forecasting, expanding Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast air-traffic control to more areas, and improving navigation charting. The report also identifies and urges the continuation of successful FAA initiatives, including the system of 230 weather cameras spread throughout the state. 

While stakeholder input was the foundation of this effort, we also received – and continue to receive - important support from Alaska’s congressional delegation. 

Sen. Murkowski, Sen. Sullivan, and Rep. Young have been important partners in this effort so far—and we are going to need their continued partnership to make sure that the FAA has the resources to get this important work done. 

The report that we’re here to discuss today is just a starting point. Now that we have recommendations in hand, we are developing a detailed roadmap for implementing them, focusing first on the initiatives with the greatest safety benefits. 

We expect to complete the draft roadmap in early 2022, and we will seek stakeholder feedback. Meanwhile, we will continue initiatives that are already underway while incorporating aspects of the new initiatives by summer 2022. 

I know that our shared commitment to make flying safer for everyone in Alaska will not waiver. And we get this work done as an ongoing, transparent, and collaborative process.

Thank you.
 

FAA Report Recommends Initiatives to Increase Aviation Safety in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today released recommendations on how to increase aviation safety in Alaska after a yearlong, sweeping examination of safety issues specific to the challenges of flying in Alaska, where more than 80 percent of its communities are accessible only by air. 

Among the recommendations are: increasing and improving weather data...

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Terminal Dedication

Remarks as prepared for delivery
 
Good morning, everyone. I’m so pleased to be here for today’s dedication. Our Deputy Administrator, Brad Mims, a former member of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, is here as well. 

As someone who flies in and out of this airport a lot, I can tell you this new concourse looks terrific! 

The 14 new aircraft gates, improved security layout, green features, and better access to amenities – all provide a more welcoming experience for passengers, flight crews, and everyone who works here.

And with the elimination of the dreaded Gate 35X, passengers can board aircraft more efficiently and comfortably than before. What a big change!

The FAA is committed to supporting the modernization of our nation’s airports – big, small, urban, and rural. They are an essential part of our nation’s infrastructure, providing an economic engine for communities all across the country. In fact, the bipartisan infrastructure bill includes a total of $25 billion for airports and air traffic control. 

We were proud to support this new concourse.

We conducted safety and environmental reviews. 

And, the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization worked closely with the airport to ensure that flight operations could continue safely and efficiently during the construction. 

It’s great to see the culmination of all of these collaborative efforts, and see the value that this new concourse is now bringing.

We know that air travel has been challenging for the public over the past 19 months. With more and more passengers coming back to air travel, they’re eager to have an improved experience, wherever they can.

This concourse will be a very welcome addition. And it’s a good example of the kinds of innovation that we’re seeing at airports throughout the country. 

And speaking of innovation — with the 14 new gates in place, the FAA will be able to deliver additional value when we implement a new system for managing aircraft that are taxiing out for departure and in to their gates. 

This system is part of our Terminal Flight Data Manager program. The software calculates when it is best to have the aircraft pushback from the gate at busy hub airports, so that they can roll right to the runway. 

With this capability, we can reduce taxi delays and ramp congestion. In doing so, we can reduce aircraft fuel burn and carbon dioxide emissions, while shaving minutes of time off each flight. We’re looking forward to seeing it here, and other airports around the country, in the coming years.  

The FAA will continue to partner with our nation’s airports, so that we can realize these innovations to make flying more efficient, equitable, and sustainable, while continuing to meet our safety responsibilities. 

Thank you for having us at the dedication today.
 

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FAA Proposes $1.38 Million Civil Penalty Against Campbell Oil & Associates in North and South Carolina

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed a $1.38 million  civil penalty against Campbell Oil and other associated parties for allegedly conducting illegal charter flights.

The FAA alleges that between April 2017 and March 2019, the parties conducted approximately 154 paid passenger-carrying flights in two Cessna Citations and a Beechcraft King Air. The agency alleges that the parties did not...

FAA Launches Voluntary Reporting Program for Safety Office

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has launched an additional way for its engineers, safety inspectors, systems safety specialists and other aviation safety employees to report safety-related issues and concerns. Information shared and submitted via this new system will be used to validate or verify an aviation safety concern, identify the root cause, and determine the appropriate corrective action.

The...

FAA Invests $479.1M in Safety, Sustainable Infrastructure at Airports

Night Authorization Available for Part 107 Drone Pilots

Drone pilots with current Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificates may now obtain near real-time authorizations to fly at night through FAA-approved providers of Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) services. LAANC is an automated system for drone pilots requesting to fly below 400 feet in controlled airspace often...

Rollin’ to the Runway Live Event

Thank you, Senator Nelson. I’m happy to be here with everybody.

The thing about aviation is … it’s a team sport. And we are lucky that NASA is on our team. We are better for it … and we are safer for it. 

Senator Nelson, I’m grateful for your partnership and your agency’s partnership … because that is why we are here today. 

We are here to show how our collaboration in using technology and data –and working with airports and airlines –has led to a promising technology that is going to result in a more sustainable aviation system, a safer system, and a better passenger experience overall. 

The climate crisis isn’t something we can leave to the next generation. My wife and I just welcomed our fourth grandchild in the last few weeks!

The capability that we have been testing for the last few years … and that we plan to deploy across more airports as part of a larger surface traffic management system … shows that we aren’t standing by. This capability reduces aircraft fuel burn and carbon dioxide emissions. And it shaves minutes of time off each flight. 

This software calculates when it is best to have the aircraft pushback from the gate at busy hub airports, so that they can roll right to the runway. With this capability, we can reduce taxi delays and ramp congestion.  

And after takeoff, this system enables air traffic controllers to merge you right into the stream of jet traffic. 

The flight crew loves it.

The passengers love it. 
 
And we’re documenting great results. 

For instance, at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, this system generated enough fuel savings each year for 185 flights between New York and Chicago by a Boeing 737. Very impressive!

This system also shaved off 15 minutes of waiting time on a taxiway for more than 3,600 departing flights.  

As part of the FAA’s Terminal Flight Data Manager system, we will deploy this new surface management capability at 27 hub airports across the country.

If you do the math, the numbers get very big, very fast – in a good way. Across these 27 airports, we estimate a savings of more than 7 million gallons of fuel, and the elimination of more than 75,000 tons of CO2 emissions, every year.

The research and testing of this technology shows how we can use advanced data analytics to make flying more efficient, more sustainable and safer. 

These kinds of data analytic technologies can put us in a position to make countless other improvements in aviation, and offer greater value for the American public whom we serve.  

Again, I want to thank NASA for partnering with us to develop, demonstrate, and now deploy this technology. Members of the airport and airline community were also great team members in this effort, and you will hear from them today as well. 

Next, we’re going to see a brief animation video that illustrates this capability. After that, we’ll hear from the airports that have been partners on this work.