Charting a new course for aviation industry

By Kelly Yamanouchi

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Can a group of 19 bureaucrats, executives and labor leaders solve airline industry woes that range from finance to worker fatigue?

The Future of Aviation Advisory Committee will try.  Set up last fall by order of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the group recently held the first of five meetings to focus on aviation safety, the aviation workforce, the industry's competitiveness, funding for aviation systems and environmental challenges.

The panel convenes in the wake of airlines' multi-billion dollar losses, one huge merger and another announced, concern about the safety of regional carriers and ongoing struggles to fund air traffic control modernization.

It will make recommendations to LaHood, who said he wants it to provide "critical and innovative thinking." Already it has collected some sobering testimony.

According to a presentation to the committee by the Air Transport Association, an airline industry group:

• 62 of the 65 largest U.S. airports, including Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, have lost scheduled flights in the last two years
• Only one U.S. passenger airline, Southwest, has investment-grade credit
• The market capitalization of all U.S. passenger airlines combined as of March 31 was smaller than the market cap of Amazon.com.
• Commercial aviation drives 10.9 million U.S. jobs, including 5 percent to 9.9 percent of the jobs in Georgia

Other memos to the committee show:

• Since 2001, the airline industry has lost nearly $60 billion and 160,000 jobs
• Some airlines are seeking potentially anti-competitive provisions in airport leases, an issue that led to conflict in discussions on Delta Air Lines' lease renewal at the Atlanta airport last year
• Service fees for checked luggage and the like are not subject to certain taxes, reducing funding for aviation system upgrades
• Segments of the aviation workforce face "serious fatigue issues," according to the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department