NATA President James K. Coyne has commended Under
Secretary for Transportation Security James M. Loy and FAA
Administrator Marion Blakey for their agencies' responses to some
communities' call for new restrictions on aviation. Coyne comments
were made in a letter to the two agency heads.
"One of the key objectives we have continually promoted to you
and your staffs is that any new operating restrictions…must
be based upon clear, credible threats and must not be designed to
address the often emotional perceptions of the general public or
local officials," Coyne wrote. The letter to Loy and Blakey was
written in response to reports that Chicago Mayor Richard
Daley and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich had lobbied the federal
government to impose airspace restrictions over Chicago.
[E-I-C Note: Daley ultimately prevailed when he went over the
heads of FAA and TSA, directly to Homeland Security's Tom
Ridge].
"I was gratified to learn that the federal government had
recently declined to establish airspace restrictions in the
Chicago, IL, area even though local officials reportedly had
requested them," Coyne's letter continued.
"Time
and again, the federal government has assured NATA and others in
the aviation industry that the security-based restrictions it
imposes will be based upon a real, credible threat and not
someone's worst-case idea of what a terrorist could do," Coyne
later said. "While the FAA and the TSA have not always met
this objective, it appears the two agencies have done so in this
case."
"Last September, shortly after joining TSA as its new head, Adm.
Loy addressed NATA's Business Aviation Security Task Force meeting.
On that occasion, he went out of his way to stress his belief that
'threat analysis and risk management must drive our operations,
infiltrated with good old common sense,'" according to Coyne.
"Imposing airspace restrictions just because someone requested them
does not meet this test," Coyne added.
"Ensuring that any additional security actions are based on
credible threats helps to conserve the critical and scarce assets
available to us all and ensures that those resources will remain
available in case of a real need," Coyne's letter added.
"I am optimistic that current airspace and operating
restrictions will be removed as soon as they are no longer needed
and that we may all direct our energies toward rebuilding the U.S.
aviation industry."