REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
PHOENIX SKY HARBOR INTERNATIONAL AVIATION SYMPOSIUM
PHOENIX, AZ
MARCH 27, 2008
NOON
Thank you, Mayor Gordon, for that kind introduction. And let me add a personal
welcome from my home state of Arizona to all of you.
Flying into Sky Harbor always reminds me of how much aviation has changed since
my childhood days. We used to celebrate family birthdays by coming to the
airport to watch the planes. Back then, each take-off and landing was an event.
I remember the anticipation – and often growing impatience – as we would listen
for the distant roar of the engines signaling the arrival of the next plane.
Today, hardly a minute goes by without action on Sky Harbor’s runways. The
sleepy small-town airport that I grew up with now sends more than 100,000
passengers a day through its busy gates, and they are coming not just from
across the country, but from around the world.
Phoenix is not alone. Deregulation, liberalization, and globalization are
propelling demand for air travel and air cargo to record heights. And the
changes ahead are even more staggering.
We expect more than one billion airline passengers a year in the United States
by 2016 – less than 10 years from now. But that is not the only change. We are
facing new types of aircraft, new service models, and explosive growth in air
cargo and international travel.
It is already beginning. This week alone, American, Continental, Delta,
Northwest, United, US Airways, and Air France all add new flights between the
U.S. and London’s Heathrow Airport, as our landmark Open Skies Plus agreement
with the EU makes restrictions on trans-Atlantic travel a thing of the past.
Also this week, the first-ever direct service begins between Atlanta and
Shanghai, and soon thereafter, between San Francisco and Guangzhou, thanks to a
new aviation agreement with China during the first U.S. meeting of the Strategic
Economic Dialogue last year.
Next Monday, I will join the Prime Minister of Australia to sign our new
bilateral Open Skies agreement. The U.S. now has more than 90 Open Skies
partners around the world. And at my table at lunch today were two more very
significant U.S. aviation partners – Mexico’s Undersecretary for Transport and
Japan’s Deputy Director-General of Civil Aviation.
With our tremendous progress in opening world aviation markets, the United
States is more connected to the world than ever before, and the biggest winners
are the millions of people who now enjoy greater freedom and more affordable
options to travel.
Yet even as new domestic services and open international markets fuel greater
demand for air travel, our aviation system is straining to handle the passengers
who already take to the skies on a daily basis.
Americans who lived through one of the worst travel seasons ever in 2007 might
look at these trends and fear new travel nightmares lie ahead. But I am here to
tell you that growth does not have to mean worsening congestion and lengthening
delays for travelers.
We can have an aviation system that facilitates global trade and serves as a
catalyst for prosperity for local – and world – economies. We can put an end to
the added emissions, wasted fuel, and passenger headaches that come from lengthy
waits on the tarmac.
And we can have an aviation system that safely handles the growing numbers of
passengers and volumes of cargo destined across the country and around the
world.
But only if we – all of us: airports, airlines, and government officials – have
the courage to embrace new policies, new equipment, and new models.
It is easy to get comfortable with the old ways of doing business, especially
when you can look at past success.
Safety is a good example.
I believe very strongly that safety efforts must be data-driven, and the data we
have today tell us that commercial aviation is not just safe, but safer than it
has ever been before.
The most recent data from the National Transportation Safety Board confirm that
fact, showing a commendable point one major accident for every million hours
flown. In fact, in 2007, for only the second time in two decades, the domestic
industry did not have a single passenger fatality or major accident.
Yet as encouraging as the data are, there are warning signs of areas that need
attention if we are to safeguard our record and keep the public confidence in
our aviation system high, as we must. There is simply no margin for error when
it comes to the safety of our aviation system.
One area of critical concern is inspections. We have a good system, with a
highly skilled and professional force dedicated to protecting public safety. But
I take very seriously the issues raised by the recent Southwest case.
We have launched a comprehensive audit of the compliance of each and every
airline with the specific maintenance and inspection requirements that we have
established for them.
The preliminary audits have brought to light maintenance issues with certain
aircraft that are being addressed to assure the highest confidence in the safety
of our system. The result of these precautions has been several flight
cancellations over the past few days. I appreciate the inconvenience these
cancellations impose on travelers, but they underscore that the system works.
Safety will never play second fiddle to convenience.
That is why I am working closely with Acting Administrator Sturgell to make sure
our oversight system is rigorous, assuring us that the airlines’ maintenance,
training, and other systems are functioning properly. The public should never,
ever have cause to doubt the integrity of the inspections of our aircraft or the
inspectors who perform them.
The public also should be able to count on dependable flight schedules and
on-time departures and arrivals. But last year, more than 540,000 flights did
not take off or land on time. That too is an all-time record, albeit a rather
dubious one.
Here again, we do not have to live with overcrowded airports and congested
skies, if we are willing to embrace fresh approaches.
Over a year ago, the Bush Administration sent Congress a comprehensive plan for
transforming our aviation system to meet today’s – and tomorrow’s – demands. A
central reform was the overhaul of the FAA's financing structure to provide
price incentives for system users to reduce delays and facilitate equipping our
aviation system with modern NextGen technology.
I stand ready to work with Congress to help pass an FAA reauthorization bill
that is consistent with the Administration’s proposed reforms. Gridlocked gates
underscore the need for a new way forward – replacing the status quo systems,
policies, and taxes that have produced the current congestion crisis.
But passengers do not have the luxury of waiting on Congress for relief, and
we’re not waiting either.
We are moving key elements of the satellite-based NextGen system from design to
delivery this year, and we have selected Florida as the test-bed for this
transformational technology. We will begin rolling out key elements of the
NextGen system there this summer, including the national debut of ADS-B
technology – the backbone of NextGen.
But you don’t have to go to Florida to see how NextGen changes the dynamics of
our aviation system. Right here in Phoenix, area navigation or R-NAV routes are
giving pilots with properly equipped aircraft the ability to choose more direct
and efficient routes within the area – rather than having to fly from
ground-beacon to ground-beacon.
R-NAV is like NextGen one-point-oh, and it is demonstrating the benefits of
satellite-based systems in improving efficiency, reducing fuel burn, and cutting
emissions.
NextGen is crucial to our long-term strategy for keeping up with aviation
growth. We have also moved forward aggressively with short-term actions designed
to ease congestion and help travelers, from a series of rules to protect
passengers to the “Holiday Fast Lanes” at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In the New York region – the source of so many delays – we have negotiated
temporary caps for JFK and Newark, and we have an acting regional Aviation Czar,
Charles Everett, on the job. He is helping to keep on track airspace redesign
and other operational improvements to reduce congestion and prevent delays.
I have never been a fan of heavy-handed government approaches like caps. But we
have an obligation to travelers to do everything in our power to prevent a
repeat of the horrors they experienced last summer.
Earlier this month, I sat down with the directors of the country’s most crowded
airports to discuss how to better address congestion before we have another JFK,
another Newark. Their response was telling. They said, “Please, give us the
tools we need to manage this problem.”
That is exactly how the problem of congestion should be tackled –at the local
level, without the intervention of the federal government.
We can begin by unleashing the power of the market to better allocate capacity
and steer investment. Pricing is the quickest and most effective approach to
help spread flights throughout the day and alleviate congestion at peak hours.
It can generate new revenues that airports can use to expand and accommodate the
forecasted passenger growth. And properly pricing air traffic services to costs
can help ensure the most efficient use of existing airports, airfields, and
airspace and provide the surest path to expand capacity and put desperately
needed technology in place.
There is nothing exotic about this approach. Phone and electric companies
balance supply and demand by adjusting their rates during peak usage hours. It
is the concept that led to free “nights and weekends” from cellular providers.
Airlines themselves smooth out peaks and valleys in demand by varying ticket
prices by time-of-day and day-of-week. Applying the same concept to the services
provided by airports and air traffic control has great potential to make today’s
broken system more predictable, reliable, and convenient for travelers.
Even in the absence of legislation putting the market-based reforms we proposed
into law, we are pursuing changes to our policy on landing fees designed to
empower airports to take advantage of pricing to encourage more efficient use of
their airfields, reduce congestion, and attract additional resources to expand
capacity.
Our proposed policy changes signal congested airports that they can move away
from the decades-old practice of charging aircraft landing fees based solely on
the weight of the aircraft – a disincentive for flying larger planes, even when
these planes provide the most efficient utilization of the airport.
With this policy in effect, airports would be able to get relief from congestion
right now by using pricing to spread traffic more evenly throughout the day – or
even among neighboring airports in the same region – allowing them to serve more
passengers, reduce delays, and offer new options.
Aviation is changing, and with it our policies need to change as well.
Experience tells us that the market is an empowering force in aviation. We have
seen it work in international aviation markets. Now let’s take advantage of the
market’s power here at home to help us accommodate growing aviation traffic
while we are modernizing our system – without crippling congestion and
debilitating delays. There is a better way.
Thank you.
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Briefing
Room
