AirportBusiness Blogs

I have been keeping up with the presidential campaigning and now suffer from “electile dysfunction”—meaning I am not aroused by any of the candidates. I have a bad case of it.

I am serious as a heart attack about this. The would-be candidates argue about everything except the most dangerous thing facing our country. They argue about who is the biggest liberal, the biggest conservative, the biggest liar, biggest racist, the biggest this and the biggest that. Yet none of them (except Ron Paul) talks about the real sword hanging over our heads.

The easiest way to learn about this grim reality is to watch a video of our comptroller general, head of the General Accounting Office David Walker on the Glenn Beck TV show. If you are the type to discount any talk-show host, then don’t listen to Beck. Just listen to David Walker (then listen as Walker agrees with Beck).

The video can be seen at http://www.paulunteer.com/videos/comptroller-general-david-walker-on-glenn-beck-video/.

David Walker explains that Medicare and Social Security obligations loom ahead of us like a huge cloud. Watch the video, but here are a few facts according to Walker:

… a surprise inspection from TSA. I had a bit of extra time on my way to do a story on Texas Aviation Services (which will appear in the February issue of AIRPORT BUSINESS), and stopped to visit Reed Pigman, long-time owner of Texas Jet and the current chairman of the National Air Transportation Association. As we chatted about the state of his FBO business, which is strong, Reed intimated that there was a surprise group of visitors on their way to his facility.

Sure enough, several minutes later a team of TSA inspectors shows up on the ramp. Turns out they’re part of TSA’s VIPR squad. The Visual Intermodal Protection and Response teams are, according to TSA’s website, part of a stepped up effort to enhance security on rail and mass transit systems – and, apparently, general aviation airports.

After Reed gave the TSA folks a quick tour of his operation, they left. Just looking to see what’s what, he relates. He also says he welcomes TSA’s initiative to get a better understanding of how general aviation service companies operate. If nothing else, it allows them to see first-hand how secure many of these facilities already are.

A subsequent call to Eric Byer at NATA got a similar response. Eric echoes Reed’s assertion that having TSA better understand GA operations is a good thing. He also explains that TSA sees this as helping them prepare for “big events” like the Super Bowl, political conventions, and the like. And he relates that while TSA shows up at operations unannounced, they do first contact the airport sponsor to get the OK to do it. “It’s strictly voluntary,” he says.

He also added: “TSA avoided the press on this.” Interestingly, Reed at Texas Jet told me the same thing – that he had been instructed specifically not to inform the press of the inspection. (He smiled and said, “Hey, what can I do when you just happen to show up at the right time?”)

A logical journalistic response would be to contact TSA directly for comment. No need. TSA operates in a mode of telling the media as little as it can get away with. And, it seems that the more you know about the aviation industry and airports (i.e. trade press), the less they want to talk to you.

The overriding message here is that GA operators can expect more scrutiny from the security agency in the months ahead. Exactly where that will lead is anybody’s guess.

Thanks for reading. jfi

Cessna signed up its very first dealership—Yingling Aviation in Wichita—60 years ago. Now Yingling and Cessna are working with each other in a new arena for both.

Yingling has announced that the company will be one of three domestic Cessna reassembly sites for the Cessna’s LSA, the SkyCatcher.

What is a “reassembly” site? Oddly, the press release didn’t define the term. Back in the day, however, when Piper built airplanes for export at least some of them were built in Vero Beach, then disassembled for packing in crates. Upon reaching the destination country, they would be reassembled. With Cessna I suppose the situation will be reversed—the SkyCatchers will be built and disassembled in China, then reassembled by Yingling and others.

Very interesting. Here is another example of the fact that building the SkyCatcher in China will also create jobs in this country. Yingling is building new facilities for this job, so construction companies, building supply companies, and others in Wichita will profit.

And what a building it will be. Windows will allow the viewing of the entire assembly line. Also, cameras will be set up and operating along the line. If you order a Cessna SkyCatcher, you will be able to view on the web the entire reassembly process 24/7. As an old aircraft salesman, I can tell you that this will be a big deal to buyers.

Let the good times roll.

We’d love to post your comments. Please click the comment tab at the top.

… and causes a stir. The Wall Street Journal says that the department’s announcement on Monday to allow U.S. airports to impose congestion pricing was “a move that caught the airlines off guard.” Probably not. FAA has been nudging along in this direction for a decade and it’s been a prominent part of the discussion for the past year on how to reduce congestion at New York’s airports. What was once sacrosanct – not allowing airports to set rates & charges at will to control activity – is now out the window with the proposed policy.

DOT says the policy change, published in a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), would “make it easier for airports to add capacity and reduce congestion” by allowing them the flexibility to vary charges based on time of day and volume of aircraft. The idea is to prod airlines into spreading out traffic at high-density airports, thereby reducing congestion.

A significant change will allow airports to build into their fees the costs of projects designed to expand capacity, which DOT says will bring lower overall construction costs by helping airports avoid finance fees. The shift would also allow airport sponsors that operate more than one commercial facility, ala the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ), to distribute landing fees among those airports. Thus, the Port Authority could take money collected at its Big 3 airports and divert it to improvements at Stewart to encourage more utilization there.

Airports Council International-North America immediately embraced the move as one that affords airports more control over the use of their facilities. Others, including the Port Authority, question whether this is the proper cure for the congestion disease. The PANYNJ, in particular, has been calling for better management of the Northeast airspace by FAA.

Count Jim Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Association, among the skeptics. He participated in the PANYNJ Task Force this past fall that made a host of recommendations to FAA on how to alleviate the congestion at New York’s airports.

One concern, says Coyne, is that the policy change could evolve into airports being allowed to regulate which traffic uses which airports in its system, which could threaten NATA members, particularly FAR Part 135 charter operators. But to Coyne, the biggest issue is imbedded in the combative relationship which the agency now has with the controller community.

Says Coyne, “It’s important to understand that the numbers of actual aircraft at the major New York airports is virtually no higher than it was 15 years ago. You would think listening to all this rhetoric … that there was a 30 percent increase. In fact the growth has been under 1 percent over past ten years at New York’s airports; GA ops have grown less. The only thing that’s changed is the move to more regional aircraft which has accounted for the only significant increase.

“I think it could be fixed if FAA and the controllers union could work more closely together. Marion Blakey came down hard on the controllers on aircraft separation, and the result was the controllers being careful not to have any violations of policy. It seems to me the airlines are being blamed for things FAA should be blaming itself for.”

Coyne says that during his meetings with the Port Authority Task Force it became evident that the city’s airports could increase operations significantly if a more trusting relationship could be developed between the controllers and their FAA managers.

He adds, “The work rules, the safety margins were set 40 years ago. We need new rules based on more sophisticated technology. I wonder when FAA will have the courage to stand up and say we need to change the rules on separation because the technology today allows for it, without reducing safety at all. Everyone is afraid of making any changes.”

Thanks for reading. jfi

Piper (they finally dropped the “New Piper” name) is in the process of deciding whether to remain in Vero Beach, FL, or to move to another location. In the last few days the city of Vero Beach has hinted that Piper will stay at Vero. No confirmation from Piper, so I suppose that the hunt is still on.

Personally, I’d like to see them stay in Vero, if only for old time’s sake. The very first new airplane I picked up at a factory was an Arrow at Vero back in 1973. I went on to pick up airplanes at Piper’s old (and long since closed) Lock Haven, PA, factory and Piper’s Lakeland, FL, factory. I also picked up many a cropduster at Cessna’s Wichita factory, but that’s a different story.

I enjoyed Vero most of all. They had a fine restaurant, the Ocean Grill, that served wonderful key lime pie and Boston black beans, plus enough other specialties to drive any glutton insane. I finally quit ordering an entrée at all, and just made a meal of the appetizers.

In season, we always packed the aircraft with oranges and grapefruit before returning home. I remember one time flying back to Montgomery, AL, with something like 20 bags of citrus fruit for other folks and me. On the way home I stopped by my mother’s house to visit. Shortly after leaving the airport, she informed me that the temperature was dropping below freezing that night. We turned around and headed back to the airport where I unloaded all the fruit and reloaded it into Mother’s car. I had to repeat the process in reverse the next morning. The temperature never even came close to freezing.

Another perk of a trip to Vero was the restaurant at Cedar Keys, FL. It was a quaint little village on the Gulf of Mexico with restaurants on stilts over the water. We’d buzz the town, then land at the airport. Eventually an old Mercedes would pick us up. It was driven by a woman who described herself as being the town drunk. She took us to a restaurant where we could eat heart of palm salad and shrimp while watching pelicans out the window.

Vero brings back a lot of memories, but Piper’s decision must be based on other factors. I just hope those factors add up in favor of remaining at Vero Beach.

We’d love to post your comments. Please click the comment tab at the top.

On Monday of this week the cover story of USA TODAY “exposed” the fact that the guvmint “pays a few small airlines $110 million a year” to subsidize flights in and out of small markets. Many of these are short flights, yet the guvmint pays a fortune of our money so that folks in those small towns can ride mostly empty airline flights instead of driving for a couple of hours.

What else is new? This has been happening for 30 years and I guess most of us on the “inside” knew this was going on, even if we had long since forgotten.

Old news it may be, but it is also part of a general trend that scares me to death.

Our guvmint seems to have decided that anyone can live anywhere they wish. That’s okay with me. But the guvmint also seems convinced that if people choose to live in places with certain inconveniences, the rest of us should pay to eliminate those inconveniences.

Many people chose to live in New Orleans. No problem. Then Katrina hit, so the rest of us paid a purple kajillion to rescue those people. Then it was decided that we should also support them until they got “back on their feet.” What does that mean? Many of them were never on their feet to start with. Now we are helping rebuild that city so they can move back. Hey, if they choose to move back, that damned sure should be their choice and their risk and at their cost—not mine.

Cities get too large. Then the guvmint uses our money to build more infrastructure to keep those people comfortable. So even more people move in and it starts all over. Hey, why should we pay to entice people to places that have too many people already?

It is a much-publicized fact that building houses too close to shoreline is bad for the ecology. It is also so risky that real insurance companies won’t cover those houses for flood loss. So, our guvmint steps in and provides “insurance” for those uninsurable houses. Why in the world should the guvmint—we the people—help people build where they shouldn’t be anyway? Did you know that the guvmint lost billions on that “insurance” program on just two hurricanes? BTW, very wealthy people own many of those “cabins” on the beach. Who else can afford it? That’s fine with me, but why should they do it on my money?

You want guvmint support? Just go live somewhere unsuitable.

We’d love to post your comments. Please click the comment tap at the top.

… I’ll take the bait and follow up on my pre-Christmas blog that has generated considerable interest from the NATCA community. If nothing else, it is impressive how controllers rally around anything they see as potentially critical of them – which this wasn’t.

First, the point of the blog was two-fold: to highlight two shortages the industry is facing – pilots and controllers; and, to suggest that while the pilot shortage is primarily a manpower (and associated career-incentive) issue, the controller shortage is more complex and heavily involves a technology solution. We live in a tech-driven industry and society, and only a Luddite would suggest that the long-term solution to ATC modernization is strictly a manpower issue.

That said, the short-term problems facing the U.S. air traffic control system may indeed be more about controller shortages (and facilities maintenance, a key NATCA position), but as indicated in the previous blog, having NATCA and FAA butting heads is not the most desirable way to reach a solution. Nor is it desirable to have the controllers who operate the system feeling stepped on, to the point of wanting out. As Paul Rinaldi, executive VP with NATCA says, we need to invest in “NowGen”. I agree … but again, the original blog was intended to be about long-term.

A bit of background also seems in order, considering the bashing of the blog as coming from a cub reporter who just reads an FAA press release and comments. I started in aviation in 1984 at an aviation trade association (NATA) in Washington. In 1986, I was hired as editor for this publication, which was founded as FBO magazine and in 1993 transformed into AIRPORT BUSINESS. Over the past 21-plus years, I have probably been at more airports (as a reporter, not as a passenger) and more FBOs/airport-based businesses than 99 percent of the population. I’ve also been in many control towers, have spoken with controllers, know controllers, and have had this same debate over a beer on numerous occasions.

I have also covered more aviation conferences than most, and ATC modernization has been a hot topic for years. I’ve heard speakers ranging from the president of NAV CANADA to the Reason Foundation to The Boyd Group to Neil Planzer of Boeing (who, of all the speakers I’ve heard on this topic, is most impressive). Interestingly, I don’t recall any non-NATCA speaker ever saying that the long-term solution to ATC lies with more bodies in towers. It’s always about technology.

On the subject of research, I would recommend that the members of NATCA browse through the press releases put out by their organization for the past several years and I challenge them to find one that pushes for new technology. I did; I couldn’t. At the least, it comes off as purely self-serving to have the organization — whose reason for being is controller membership – to always claim that every problem with the ATC system can be solved with more members, er, controllers. If the controllers are truly the caretakers of the system, why isn’t NATCA leading the charge for new technology?

Through the years I’ve been critical of FAA, and I too have doubts as to whether the agency will have the ability to modernize the system. History suggests it won’t. My answer would be to pull the function out of government (except for safety regulation) and privatize it. But then, ‘privatization’ is a dirty word in the NATCA dictionary. So, while Canada prepares to install ADS-B system-wide to the north, we in the U.S. continue to debate the need and how to pay for it.

I appreciate the ongoing interest and comments from the controller community, particularly the measured response from former NATCA president John Carr. It’s a serious subject and the controllers should have a leading voice on the long-term solution. But it isn’t just about bodies; it’s about technology, too.

Thanks for reading. jfi