By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will vote June 25 on President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Federal Aviation Administration, as the agency deals with a series of safety issues and persistent shortages of air traffic controllers.
Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford, who has been harshly critical of the FAA’s culture and leadership, told the committee he would hold planemaker Boeing “accountable to deliver a high-quality product safely.”
Boeing declined to comment.
Bedford disclosed he had a February 25 conversation with then Trump adviser Elon Musk, who said he wanted a “technologist” to run the FAA, according to documents released on Wednesday.
Bedford said he disagreed and suggested the FAA “could hire or contract for competent technology help.” Musk “believed a big problem for the agency was the lack of software tools and internal development capabilities, which I agreed could be an area of opportunity for rapid improvement,” Bedford said.
Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy this week in Paris gave the strongest indication the Trump administration is moving closer to lifting a 38-plane-per-month cap on Boeing’s 737 MAX production imposed in January 2024 after a mid-air emergency involving a new 737 MAX 9 missing four key bolts.
“Boeing is on the right path,” Duffy told CNBC. “I want to make sure that the FAA moves when Boeing’s ready to expand their capacity.”
Calls to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system intensified after a mid-air collision on January 29 between a U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet near Washington Reagan National Airport. All 67 people aboard the aircraft died.
One-quarter of all FAA facilities are 50 years old or older and aging systems have repeatedly sparked delays. Technology issues have snarled hundreds of flights at Newark Airport.
A persistent shortage of controllers has delayed flights and many controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks. The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels.
(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Rod Nickel)
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