Federal Aviation Administration head to resign, allowing Trump to choose successor

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, who led a a stricter enforcement policy against Boeing since a panel blew up a jetliner in January, said Thursday he would resign next month, clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump to nominate his pick to lead the agency.

Mike Whitaker announced his pending resignation in a message to employees of the FAA, which regulates airlines and aircraft manufacturers and manages the nation’s airspace. He becomes an administrator of the agency in October 2023.

Since then, challenges Whitaker has faced include an increase in close accidents between planes and the need for stricter oversight of Boeing. outdated equipment and a shortage of air traffic controllers at a time of high consumer demand for air travel.

“The United States is the safest and most complex airspace in the world, and that’s because of your commitment to the safety of the traveling public,” Whitaker said in the message to employees. “This has been the best and most challenging work of my career, and I wanted you to hear directly from me that my term will end on January 20, 2025.”

Whitaker took over as head of the FAA after the Senate, often divided along partisan lines, voted 98-0 last year to confirm his selection by President Joe Biden. The agency had been without a Senate-confirmed leader for nearly 19 months, and a previous Biden nominee withdrew in the face of Republican opposition.

FAA administrators — who hold a position long considered nonpartisan — typically serve for five years, but that hasn’t happened recently. Whitaker’s predecessor, Stephen Dickson, also resigned early before fulfilling his mandate.

Whitaker worked as an attorney for TWA and spent 15 years at United Airlines, where he oversaw international and regulatory affairs. He served as deputy administrator of the FAA during the Obama administration and then as director of an air taxi company.

Less than three months into his tenure as head of the FAA, a Boeing 737 Max lost a door catch panel during an Alaska Airlines flight over Oregon, reigniting flight problems. safety concerning the plane and the company. Whitaker grounded similar models and asked Boeing to submit a plan to improve manufacturing quality and safety.

Whitaker said the FAA’s oversight of Boeing had been “too much neglect – too focused on administrative audits and not enough on inspections.

In August, the FAA said it had doubled down on its lawsuits against Boeing since the door jam burst in January.

Senators from both parties praised Whitaker Thursday before a hearing on the FAA’s air traffic control system, which suffers from a shortage of controllers and old equipment. A computer system that provides safety information to pilots stranded in January 2023causing more than 1,300 flight cancellations and thousands of delays in a single day.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who led the opposition to Biden’s first choice to lead the FAA, said Whitaker’s unanimous confirmation vote was a “testament to his experience, his judgment and his nature apolitical”. He ably led the agency through a difficult time.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who leads the Senate aviation subcommittee, said Whitaker’s oversight of Boeing was critical. “Our aviation system is safer because of their services,” she said.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which will consider Trump’s nominee to replace Whitaker, said the successor “must be ready from day one to continue the work of restoring the culture FAA safety standards and provide true oversight of the aviation sector.

After Trump was elected president in 2016, he considered becoming his personal pilot for the FAA’s top job before choosing Dickson, a former Delta Air Lines executive.

Trump’s choice this time could be affected by the contribution of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who clash with the FAA to slow down the Spaceship Mega Rocket developed by the billionaire’s company SpaceX. Musk, a huge campaign donor who Trump appointed to lead an attempt to reduce the size of government, has accused the FAA of being too bureaucratic.

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Business Writer Michelle Chapman in New York contributed to this report.