Tag Archives for FAA.
The FAA has issued a new order outlining changes to flight-cut requirements and airline obligations during the government shutdown. The directive adds penalties of up to $75,000 per unauthorized flight and temporarily limits passenger compensation rules as airlines coordinate nationwide schedule reductions.
For decades, the FAA relied on independent “fixers” — outside engineers who kept aircraft approvals moving when bureaucracy stalled. Now it’s dismantling that system, embracing the Boeing model of corporate self-oversight that once drew intense scrutiny.
In an aircraft fire, passengers have just 90 seconds to escape—and grabbing a carry-on or stopping for a selfie could be what dooms everyone behind them. The FAA wants safety videos updated to address passenger bags but that’s unlikely to help.
Pilots are forced into mandatory retirement at age 65 in the United States, regardless of their health or ability. This is appalling, and it’s time to change this rule.
The FAA’s move, announced without fanfare when it was granted earlier in May, allows Boeing to return to performing critical certification tasks on behalf of the agency. The ODA program delegates regulatory responsibilities to manufacturers, streamlining oversight while preserving accountability through FAA supervision. Boeing engineers, known as authorized representatives, can approve design and production changes under FAA authority.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – who has supported an unqualified nominee to run the FAA and blocked air traffic control staffing fixes – is taking on the Trump administration’s nominee to run the FAA. Bryan Bedford, the CEO of Republic Airways, has a long and distinguished career in aviation management – but he sought to have the FAA declared structured pilot training equivalent to mindless hours and this is anathema to the big pilot union.
The union, ALPA, wants “assurances that [Bedford] will maintain the current requirements” and is expressing “concerns” about his nomination. They’re trying to position themselves within a Trumpian MAGA framework, explaining their separate efforts to fight greater automation in cockpits by “foreign airlines and manufacturers” is at odds with an “America First” agenda.
Boeing has had production issues, and deliveries of their Boeing 787-9s to American have been delayed. But American couldn’t have flown these planes even if Boeing could have delivered them. That’s because the business class suites hadn’t been signed off on by the FAA, on something of a technicality. Again.
The FAA has renamed the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America.’ The agency’s data and charts will show this name change, along with a change fom Denali to Mount McKinley.
When last week’s air disaster happened in D.C., the spotlight was thrown quickly on air traffic control – even without having any inkling that controller error contribution to the collision. That’s because there’s been a lot of attention paid recently to diversity efforts at the FAA, and because the President has railed against those sorts of efforts.
There’s a lot of misinformation about what happened. Here’s the basic truth, and how much it matters today.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
