As Marion Blakey Gets Ready to Leave FAA …
… the vultures are circling. An article in USA Today questions her decision to become president of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), suggesting a potential conflict of interest. The article charges that Blakey has made decisions that impact AIA members. Fair enough. Yet, look at her bio and becoming president of an industry trade group seems like a logical next step in her career. She has been a presence in D.C. much of her life and knows the workings of Washington.
Consider: Blakey has served as chair of the NTSB; held four previous presidential appointments; served as Administrator of the DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; and, has held positions at the Departments of Commerce and Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the White House, and DOT. It’s hard to imagine her going back to her hometown of Gadsden, AL to become the head of the local Chamber of Commerce.
Now, I’ve been critical of FAA Administrators in the past. I used to marvel at how Blakey’s predecessor, Jane Garvey, could captivate an audience. At the end of any of her speeches, however, I would look down at my notes and there was little of substance there. Garvey’s predecessor, David Hinson, was arguably the most qualified person to ever head up the FAA. Yet, my criticisms of Hinson for not taking tough, industry-leading positions of hot issues led to him refusing to talk to me at trade shows.
Blakey has never been one to back away from making tough leadership stances. I have yet to meet any aviation person or group who has had close dealings with the Administrator who did not respect her integrity. Look at the ongoing reauthorization debate and FAA’s position on new user fees (actually, the Administration’s position) – while general aviation groups are vehemently opposed to the FAA proposal, I have never heard one question Blakey’s integrity.
Blakey gets high marks from industry on her leadership in getting the NextGen air traffic control system moving, for taking the agency toward a more business-like operation, and for holding the line on controller salaries – an area in which cost control has been an ongoing concern.
At this week’s National Airports Conference in Tucson, FAA’s Ben DeLeon, director of planning and programming, related how when Blakey first arrived at FAA she challenged the agency’s management to clearly define a long-range national plan, which didn’t exist. The result was the FACT 1 study and the recently released FACT 2, which clearly define regions of the country that will be challenged in the future to meet capacity needs. Everyone seems to agree that this is much needed planning information.
In August, Blakey called together industry and government representatives to challenge them to come up with solutions to runway incursion issues at U.S. airports. The result was a Call to Action that industry and airports are taking, within 60 days, to meet the problem head-on.
As industry awaits the Administration’s nomination for the next FAA Administrator, we can only hope that we get someone as serious (and as tough-minded) as Blakey to address the serious issues facing aviation.
Thanks for reading. jfi
Now that we have the benefit of the passage of time let’s take a closer look at Marion Blakey’s “integrity” you so fondly referred to in your article.
“Marion C. Blakey, the administrator, promised that her agency would have “the right number of controllers in the right place at the right time,” and that as the retirements approached, she would hire some controllers in advance of need to maintain a balance of veteran controllers and trainees.”
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/22/politics/22faa.html)
Check out the July 18 entry of the Potomac Current and Undertow blog: http://currentandundertow.blogspot.com/ to see if Marion Blakey kept her promise; you know, if she lived up to the FAA Mission Statement-”Integrity is our character.” ( http://www.faa.gov/about/mission/ )
You will find that LGA had to groundstop all inbound traffic due to a shortage of controllers. Another promise broken by Marion, queen of integrity. She came in to the FAA and totally destroyed a once proud agency. Don’t even get me started on how she awards a huge contract to one of the AIA members and is then rewarded with a job as head of AIA for an annual salary of close to 1 Million dollars! This in spite of laws currently on the books prohibitting such actions. She should be in prison!
Blakey is leaving the FAA and touting what a good job she did. She has always got ahead by politicking. She knew little about aviation or security when she went she was appointed to the NTSB. She could have done a lot to prevent the 3000 + deaths that occurred on 9/11. The 9/11 threat was known and yet she ignored it. Flight data recorder information should have been transmitted to the ground and still is being archaically stored aboard aircraft jeopardizing the safety and security of the nation and the traveling public. She politicked her NTSB job to go to the FAA which she was ill equipped technically to handle. Planes that deviate substantially from their approved flight plans should be landed at a secure sparsely populated airport by a remote pilot. The Comair 2006 crash of Flight 5191 was a recurring type crash that was readily preventable and she did nothing to prevent its recurrence. Blakey has done little for aviation safety and the security of our nation. Now she takes the top lobbying job with the group that she has been giving contracts to. Is there no end to the pandering, incest and lack of morality of our government officials?
Sy Levine
http://www.safelander.com
your article, your opinion, and assessment of the situation are total out of touch with reality.
Ms Blakey integrity you say is un-questioned you had better re-check your facts. we do not lead students to enroll and spend upward of 100k, 5 years out to then turn and have your expectations of pay cut 30%
point 2 congressional testimony Ms Blakey testify that FAA programs were on time and on budget when inn fact they were re-base lined because most were significantly behind and or over budget.
the list just goes on and on, your clearly on to something when you say she gets high marks from industry thats because she in bed with them. your a dope Infanger and as far as controller pay, you don’t have a clue as to what it takes to do the job, because if you had then you’d keep your remarks to yourself. When you side with Blakey you side with someone who rigged a system to fail, so her friends could step in and save the day. Of course by that point at twice the rate of the current. So step off
Ask the families and friends and loved ones of those people who died in the Comair crash what they think of Marion Blakey.
I was in business for 35 years and never lost sight of the value of my workforce. Marion Blakely considers it a badge of accomplishment to have the workforce in all of government who (per our own gov surveys) hates and despises their management the most. Nice job Marion.
And when even Congress voted 65%-35% to go to arbitration and asked her to please get a contract, Marion said to hell with Congress, to hell with the American principle of fairness and majority rule.
No wonder she is running away from the mess she made. The cost of her short sighted pig headed attitude has cost the U S economy billions and billions of dollars in wasted airport delay times etc.
Thank god she is gone so that maybe the next administrator can get on with picking up the pieces of the total absolute mess she has made.
Let me gets this straight. It is CONGRESS who made the FAA cut back and it is Marion Blakey who obliged to do so. Now they are threatening the airlines to rearrange their schedules or “the government might enforce flight limits.”
It didn’t mean anything to congress when the air traffic controllers told them 5 years ago, they were going to run into a problem of shortage of controllers, and that it would bring on massive delays. Congress doesn’t even care if a controller gets mistreated.
But the first time they are on a plane and have to be delayed they want to magically snap their fingers and have the problem solved.
I have a message for congress first say thank you to Congressman John Mica he was great, all those years in getting things cut back, privatized, consolidated, and making these delays possible and endangering lives. Say thank you to Marion Blakey for the support she gave on mistreating professionals and causing delays.
Congress I have another message. You and Marion created this mess but the air traffic controllers are professionals and will not take any chances. They still believe in their motto “SAFETY FIRST”
Thank you for a fair assessment John. I get tired of reading selfish comments from disgruntled Air Traffic Controllers who are making 100,000/yr (alot of them 14000 +) who don’t have skillsets to do anything else, yet think they deserve more. By the way, most only work 4 to 5 hours a day, the rest is break-time (they’ll tell you training-briefings-etc). Pretty sweet job if you ask me. Marion Blakey is one of the best administrators in my opinion. She did her job with the American people and taxpayer in mind. She did not waver when the entitlement minded employees needlessly (and rudely) berated her for very good business (taxpayer) decisions. I hope the next administrator will follow in her footsteps.
Sorry, no Cum-Ba-Ya upon leaving for this administrator. Of course, Blakey has some fine qualities and is an astute, experienced PR and businessperson. She obviously follows administration orders well. We all remember what happened to Mineta when he said, “no user fees.”
However, she leaves such real damage behind that it may never be resolved. Cutting costs for ATC is one thing but the humiliation and degradation of employees is another. Her rule over ATC personnel is worse than bankrupt airline CEOs who canned their employee’s pensions while taking big bonuses. Planning for ATC, what good is that without the input of the certified controllers? If she doesn’t like the numbers, she just changed the rules until it fit her agenda.
The tragedy is her PR campaign in favor of airlines over all other aviation entities. Why would the public not believe what she and the twisted ATA would say? Unfortunately, most of the facts were never revealed, just the spins. Do you remember SATS, GNATS, AGATE? I do. Now a deep distrust and divide will far out last her reign, among all areas of aviation. Never, in history did aviation not stand together until she so divided them. The Airlines and General Aviation will never have the same view of each other again.
Go back to Alabama? No thank you, we are done. The best hope, now that she is leaving, is the next administrator will not do more harm. Unfortunately, with her new position, we are likely to keep on having to hear from her. ENOUGH!
Blakey gets high marks for imposing work and pay rules that have a record number of veteran controllers retiring, and a “plan” to hire underpaid, zero experience trainees to replace us, that isn’t working ?
Nextgen is a phrase, nothing more. And Blakey’s integrity (or lack thereof), dismantling the NAS and then personally benefiting by expoloiting a private sector job, shilling for companies that will make billions selling fancy new ATC gear to the government to do what……solve the crisis (or maybe just rip off the taxpayer while AIA companies get rich) that she created.
Blakey said it herself, better start bringing a good book to the airport….or maybe you fly on one of those private jets that isn’t paying it’s fair share ?