Today I went to the confirmation hearing for Robert Sturgell, the acting administrator and administrator-designate of the Federal Aviation Administration. He received a tense reception by the committee, members of which berated him (rightly or wrongly) over air traffic controller morale and retirements, a passenger’s bill of rights, NextGen and air traffic control modernization, redesign of the New York/New Jersey airspace, small community air service, airline mergers, airline customer service, runway incursions and safety, and more.
I’ll have a full report, including the latest ramblings of Senator Ted “series of tubes” Stevens, later today.
UPDATE: Here’s my full report.
Robert Sturgell is part of the “old school” Federal Aviation Adminstration which attempted an end run around the truly correct airspace redesign process. It wasted $53 million and nine years on conducting the airspace redesign while pretending to involve the public, and in the process subverting existing EPA regulations, and ignoring the right of the Northeast population to their cherished quality of life. He must go, to be replaced by someone whose fortune is not tied to the aerospace industry. Perhaps the next administration will set things right by nominating someone who truly can see through the fictionous airspace redesign and understands what it really takes to resolve the airport delay crisis.