Today is the first day of the 2009 Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airline Symposium. Yours truly is sitting on the back row of what is a gorgeous meeting room at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel with Dan Reed from USA Today and Brett Snyder, aka Cranky Flyer. Susan Carey from the Wall Street Journal is sitting a few rows in front of us, and there are a few other media types floating around.
Today has been a good start to what is always one of my favorite industry get-togethers. There are no power point presentations, the dress is casual, and the company is great.
DOT secretary Ray LaHood spoke to a packed house at lunch. John Byerly, deputy assistant secretary for Transportation Affairs at the State Department seemed to be more excited than most at comments that LaHood made, as, according to Byerly, it was the first public confirmation that the new administration is firmly (and trust me, LaHood was VERY direct and forceful about the fact) behind two major items. One — the new NextGen navigation system and two, the concept of “Open Skies.”
According to John, who came over and talked to me after the speech, this was the first time there had been public confirmation of the “Open Skies” support. Not that there was that much danger this would not the case. But I can understand why he was happy. As he said, “Whew, that’s going to make my job much easier!”
John, of course, is preparing to start work on stage two of the EU/U.S. air liberalization agreement.
Some people wondered whether or not DOT Secretary LaHood would fomally announce the symposium moderator Randy Babbitt’s nomination as the new FAA administrator at the conference, but there was no official announcement today.
However, that’s not to say that LaHood did not discuss the topic. He made a point to discuss the extensive and grueling “vetting” process that nominees have to endure. My take on his comments at lunch were that this was why Babbitt was not announced formally — the process has simply not been completed.
For those fans of old line airline types, Bill Franke was on the panel before the one that is speaking now. Yes, a real live recipient of the PlaneBusiness Ron Allen Airline (Mis) Management Award. That’s okay. United’s Glenn Tilton is our luncheon speaker tomorrow. As most of you know, he received a special PlaneBusiness Greed Award the year United came out of bankruptcy.
Meanwhile yours truly will participate on the labor management panel tomorrow afternoon.
Ye haw!