AirportBusiness Blogs

… at this week’s ACI-NA/AAAE Legislative Issues Conference in Washington, D.C., two things continued to stand out in the ongoing FAA reauthorization debate. One, NextGen must be the number one priority; and two, meeting the September 30 deadline for passage looks highly unlikely.

The two airport lobbying groups meet each summer to focus on the industry’s hot legislative issues. Day two featured five of the key U.S. House members involved in the discussion. Basically, each expressed their support for the House bill already passed by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and which waits financial review by the Ways & Means Committee. The counterpart Senate bill is in a similar state, awaiting review by the Finance Committee.

It’s all about system funding at this point, with a host of subset issues including raising the $4.50 cap on passenger facility charges. But after two years of listening to the various positions of FAA, the airlines, business and general aviation, and airports, what this year’s reauthorization has to be about first and foremost is truly modernizing the air traffic control system. Doing so changes everything. As Rep. Vern Ehlers (D-MI) says, “The most important thing is we have to do it right.”

The Next Generation ATC system is based on digital communications. It will reduce separations in the sky, increasing capacity. It will reduce separations on the ground, increasing capacity. It will streamline a system that today is bursting at the seams. And in the end, it will facilitate new growth system-wide, from business aviation to airlines to airports. The House bill provides some $13 billion in funding for NextGen.

While is appears that Congress is serious about bringing ATC into the digital era, it’s highly questionable that the legislators will actually present a bill to the President by September 30, the day when all current authorization and appropriation laws expire. No one at the podium at this meeting was optimistic that was going to happen. There is so much on the Congressional plate to consider when it reconvenes in September (following its August recess) and such a high degree of partisanship in Washington these days, it looks to be highly unlikely.

The ‘best guess’ by those in the know seems to be getting a bill done by the end of the year, with FAA and industry living with one or more continuing resolutions to keep the system moving. After December 31, all bets are off, they say. Then we enter a Presidential election year, a time when Congress historically gets little done.

Thanks for reading. jfi

I have just read a book so good that I have to recommend it to anyone interested in aviation.

The book is “The Pre-Astronauts,” by Craig Ryan (ISBN #1-59114, published by Bluejacket Books in 1995—get it at any bookstore or amazon.com). It’s the story of those who used balloons to put man in the stratosphere, thus providing much information of importance for our astronauts to this day.

But it’s so much more than that.

The book looks at the long history of balloons, parachutes, and the heroes who led the way in both. Study it as a reference book or read it as a novel (but always remember it is true). Read it as a storybook of great heroes of great courage of both genders. Read it just for the pure excitement of it, but read it.

Many of you old timers will, as I did, think you remember and are already familiar with these stories and histories. We remember those days and feats from the media of those times, but there are more feats and stories than you can possibly imagine.

These people went up more than 100,000 feet. At the time, nobody knew if man could survive such activities. It also includes a flight by one of my heroes, Joe Kittinger, in an open gondola to more than 102,000 feetm at which altitude he jumped from that gondola to parachute back to earth. Many of us remember that ascent and the jump because of a beautiful Life magazine issue showing Kittinger up close, just as he leaps from the gondola. That remains to this day an awesome photo, and many of the records set that day still stand.

Get this book. You’ll like it.

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In 1949, a classic American drama, Death of A Salesman, was introduced to the public. Written by Arthur Miller (hey, what can you say about a man who not only wrote brilliantly but who also married Marilyn Monroe?), the play became a huge success. I read it as part of an English Literature class in the early 1960s, and it is still used in such classes today.

The story was about a dreamer of a salesman, Willy Loman, whose dream of the great American success story is dying in his heart along with his confidence in himself.

It is happening to me. My dream, however, has always been about the power and success of the great American customer. Finally, that dream has died in my heart along with any faith on my ability to do anything whatsoever about it. It died after several days trying to solve a program with EMBARQ, a telephone company supposedly serving customers in Tennessee.

The problem itself is not the big story. The story is that we have called, and been put on hold until we are frustrated almost to the point of tears, but the problem is still not solved. AARRGGHH!

Can you believe there was a time when your telephone company would come to your business—free of charge—and teach you how to deal with your customers on the telephone? There was. I remember it, and a good job they did, too. Now telephone companies are themselves horrible at dealing with customers by telephone.The frustrating thing is that this type of so-called service is now normal. Have you tried to call an airline, insurance company, or bank lately? Or, heaven help you, any branch of the guvmint? Pitiful.

I don’t know the answer. Surely wish I did.

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… remains a top priority for airports. So says Canadian Airports Council (CAC) president/CEO Jim Facette. Although some relief was granted by the federal government in May 2005, Canadian airports continue to be strapped by high rents to the feds. In particular, says Facette, it’s an obstacle for the nation’s airports when competing globally.
 

“Let’s just talk about Toronto for a moment,” says Facette. “Toronto handles 31 million passengers a year, and is positioning itself to compete globally for international traffic. It’s going to compete with Chicago, JFK, and other like airports.
 

“If we’re going to compete on a level playing field, we need to get some cost certainty into the system. Reducing airport rent will go a long way in doing that,” he explains. “We have to take a step back and look at it from a competitive perspective. What we’re asking for is a policy environment that provides airports with the best possible scenario in which they can truly compete with airports around the world.
 

“Toronto’s in a competitive marketplace; Buffalo is just down the road.”
 

It’s been 15 years since Transport Canada divested itself of ownership of most of the nation’s airports, or transferred ownership to local authorities under long-term leases. It is the latter arrangement that continues to strap Canadian airports, says Facette. The revolution that has occurred at major Canadian airports since that divestiture is nothing short of extraordinary. It’s easy to appreciate the CAC’s position that unleashing their purse strings could result in significantly more development.
 

Facette’s comments are part of an in-depth one-on-one interview conducted recently with AIRPORT BUSINESS magazine. Watch for the expanded transcript in the upcoming August issue.
 

Thanks for reading. jfi

Lady Bird Johnson has died. That brings back hundreds of memories of days gone by…

For you really young folks, Lady Bird was the wife of Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ), the vice president who became president when John Kennedy was killed in 1963 in Dallas. At the end of that term he ran for president on his own, defeating Barry Goldwater by a landslide. 

According to Robert Caro, in one of his great books about the man, LBJ was one of the first politicians to use aircraft for campaigning. He hired a piston-powered helicopter to fly him from one Texas town to another while stumping for the senate in 1948. The pilot, who flew LBJ to parking lots, football fields, shopping centers and elsewhere, described LBJ as being absolutely fearless about flying, and also ignorant about and totally uninterested in the subject. No matter how tight the landing site nor how hot the Texas weather, if the pilot thought he could take off, LBJ didn’t argue. The pilot himself might be worried, but often LBJ sometimes went to sleep before the takeoff. Surely sounds like ignorance to me.

That election was the one giving LBJ his nickname, “Landslide Lyndon,” because he won by such a small margin. Some say the votes he stole exceeded the margin by which he won. In fact, it is alleged that late in the 1970s an election official confessed that he helped rig the election.

LBJ later said that main thing he missed about being president was no longer having access to Air Force One.

… passed by the U.S. House (H.R.2881) and Senate (S.1300) are worth a look. For those in the business of airports, the proposed increases by both houses for the Airport Improvement Program is a big plus. Both propose funding AIP at $15.8 billion over four years. The infrastructure debate still to be settled is at what level to set passenger facility charges (PFCs). The House proposes an increase to $7; the Senate wants to stay at $4.50, while introducing a pilot program that would allow up to six airports to have no limit when setting the cap. 

Interestingly, the actual funding of the system – the ‘user fee’ debate – in essence fell on deaf ears in Congress. The airlines pushed hard; business aviation pushed back. Airports sat on the sidelines. In the end, Congress did not see a reason to change. In the intense Democrats vs. Republicans environment that is Washington today, the reality seems to be that when it comes to aviation funding, neither side bought the FAA (or ATA) argument. Now comes the fun part – getting each bill to the floor and passed; working out a subsequent compromise on the differences; and getting the President to sign the final legislation. T.J. Schulz, vice president with the Airport Consultants Council (a group that lives and breathes AIP levels) comments: “The month of July is going to be very important, as far as the effort to get this overall bill done. We expect the House to likely consider the FAA reauthorization bill on the House floor sometime this month. 

“The sticky part, though, will be the Senate. It appears at this time that it is pretty unlikely that they will be able to bring up the FAA bill on the Senate floor — it certainly won’t be until after the August recess. So, you’re looking at the beginning of September and a whole plate of legislative issues, including most of the annual spending bills. It’s going to be a tough challenge.” Also, the Senate Finance Committee has yet to review and sign off on that body’s bill. 

Regarding the ability to get the bill done by September 30, the end of the federal fiscal year, Schulz says, “We have to assume there might be some delay; hopefully, no more than a month or so.” Thanks for reading.  jfi   

Airplanes climb with power over and above that power required just to stay aloft. I am convinced that people do the same.

I remember when I learned to water ski. At first, it took all of my knowledge, skill, and strength to stay on top of the water. Later, I could stay up easily and had some power left over to cut across the wake; then, eventually, I could ski backwards, go over a ski jump, and even ski with someone on my back. (I even reached the Georgia State water skiing tournament. If I remember right, there were 15 contenders and I came in 13th.)

Today, I couldn’t begin to do all that stuff. I was doing it with the power I had over and above what it took just to stay on top of the water. As I got—and continue to get—older, I don’t have the excess power.

Pilots experience this. At first, every flight scares you, because you can barely fly at all. Later—with more experience—you can fly an ILS and do a thousand things the student can only dream of (to paraphrase John Gillespie Magee).

There was a time when I could—to hear me tell it—leap tall buildings. Now I don’t have the excess power above and beyond what it takes just to walk around.

The moral? Pilots also loose skills and strength as they age. We should change our limits, our hours, and the stress through which we put ourselves.

So, what got me started on this tirade? Gail and I are moving this week. In our youth we could pack it, load it on the rental truck, drive 300 miles, and unload it. This move (only 40 miles) we are packing it, but professional movers will do the rest. We are absolutely exhausted.

Next time we will let the professionals—young and experienced—do it all. If, that is, we live through this move, which is doubtful.

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