Remove FAA's Conflict of Interest

Many airport related problems are due to the conflicting mission of the FAA as regulator and promoter of aviation. The role of cheerleader for the aviation industry, financier of aviation expansion, and safety and health regulator conflict. And they are out of balance as demonstrated by the FAA's Noise Abatement Policy. The FAA should be downsized, with its focus on safety, crash prevention, and crash investigation. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should oversee environmental regulation, and local governments should oversee airport expansion.

The FAA makes no secret of its role as aviation cheerleader. A recent FAA publication, FAA Aviation Forecasts, Fiscal Years 1996-2007 begins its executive summary with the headline, “Two Years of Traffic Growth and Profits Too!”

The logical solution to the conflicts of interest are to remove the conflicts by dividing FAA’s roles between more appropriate entities. The FAA should remain the regulator of passenger and aircraft safety. The EPA should be the regulator of environmental quality and aviation’s damaging health impacts. The multi-billion dollar airline industry should be the cheerleader of aviation. And local communities should control development at local airports.

Tell the FAA they are doing a poor job of abating noise and they should seek to turn that responsibility over to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Send comments in triplicate to:
Federal Aviation Administration
Office of the Chief Counsel
Attention: Rules Docket (AGC-200)
Docket No. [30109]
800 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20591

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