The aerospace industry was relieved last year when the Federal Aviation Administration, the main regulator for all things that fly, finally got an administrator after an 18-month vacancy.
The choice, Michael Whitaker, was hailed as a true aviation expert. His resume portrayed a wide range of industry experience, including as an FAA deputy administrator and an airline executive. Whitaker sailed through the nomination process, garnering a 98-0 vote in the Senate.
After a bit more than a year into his five-year term, Whitaker now plans to step down next month.
The agency is about to move back to square one: Leaderless during a crucial time in which Boeing Co. requires close oversight, more drones are taking to the skies, producers of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft clamor for faster certification, airlines push for more air-traffic controllers and near misses keep happening at airports.
It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Whitaker and his deputy administrator, Katie Thompson, are planning to step down before President-elect Donald Trump takes office and unleashes Elon Musk to attempt to streamline the federal bureaucracy under the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk had called on Whitaker to resign in September, accusing the FAA of dragging its feet on approving SpaceX launches. The agency had also fined SpaceX for launch license penalties, raising Musk’s ire. It’s hard to overstate how unusual it is for an executive from a company that is regulated directly by the FAA to criticize the agency and its leader so publicly and forcefully.
On the positive side, the five-year FAA reauthorization bill was signed in May, arming the agency with a road map and funding for the main tasks it needs to tackle. Still, the agency, which has about 45,000 employees, can’t run on autopilot.
The next administrator must walk the fine line between oversight and innovation.
The FAA must repair the damage to its reputation that resulted from the lax oversight during the certification process of the Boeing 737 Max, which had two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. It also must avoid stifling innovation by becoming too cautious on approvals. Under Whitaker, the FAA hired 1,811 air-traffic controllers in fiscal year 2024, and that momentum needs to continue.
The onus is now on Trump to nominate someone with a resume that can match Whitaker’s, inspire industry confidence, and who can uphold the agency’s main mission of keeping the skies safe.
Whoever decides to take on this daunting task will work under the shadow of Musk. Everything points to the Tesla Inc. chief executive officer wielding real power and influence in the Trump administration, including over the agency that directly regulates his space company.
Let’s hope this shadow won’t scare off qualified candidates for the top job of safeguarding the skies.
