Aviation Organization

Throughout ones aviation career, it is strongly recommended to join an association that is well-known in the industry. Upon research, two very beneficial associations were found. Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, D.C., the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their business a more productive, and successful one. On the other hand, the General Aviation Manufacture Association (GAMA), founded and formed in 1970 in Washington, D.C., foster the aviation industry through promoting a better understanding on maintenance, repairs, and overhaul for general aviation aircrafts their users.

According to their website, the NBAA "foster an environment that allows business aviation to thrive in the United States and around the world" (About NBAA, n.d.). The way the association does that is through adhering and unfailingly representing and protecting the interest of their aviation members by presenting a united business aircraft front in all matters of the operation where such organization is necessary. In its journey to better the general aviation operating environment, NBAA was successful in making the following changes:

• Improvements Airways and Airports.
• Better weather reporting services.
• Expanded communication and air navigation facilities.
• Improved general aviation aircraft parts distribution.
• Help companies by providing qualified pilots meet the professional requirements for business flying. 

So with that being said, the association was successful in representing more than eleven thousand companies and provided well over hundreds of goods and services (NBAA History, n.d.).

On the other hand, the contributions of GAMA is beyond important to the general aviation industry. The association focuses mainly on the maintenance side of operations, which is indeed a crucial factor to the safety of flight. Their vision is to be "recognized as the most effective trade association in business and general aviation, aerospace manufacturing, and in the maintenance, repair and overhaul domain (About Gama, n.d.). To include some of the GAMA functions within the industry, it is important to keep in mind that following are some of the accomplishments:

• Enhanced safety through innovation and the promotion of quality training.
• Facilitated improvements in certification, audit and regulatory processes.
• Fostered a sustainable general and business aviation growth.
• Promoted the economic impact and societal benefits of general and business aviation.

Such association has been very successful in working closely with general aviation aircraft manufacturers to standardize mechanical procedures (About Gama, n.d.). Through such standardization, of parts or repairs, it is safe to assume the basis of general knowledge of the GA operations is somewhat strong to those who participate in it.     

For me personally, and for almost all of my aviation peers, it is very important to consider joining some of those associations. I am just currently trying to get my foot in the doors of the aviation industry. Being a member of GAMA, NBAA, or any other association for that matter will display my heavy personal desire to be an important part of the community. Being a member will also grant me the opportunity to get as heavily involved in aviation as my future employer would hope I am. In addition, the amount of networking opportunities that exists within those associations is invaluable.

The employment opportunities within those organizations is huge. While maneuvering around the NBAA website and their career paths, I came across something stating that they offer help to those who have the desire to becoming GA pilots. So you apply, and if you meet the requirements (commercial certification and etc), they help connect you companies and you could possibly be flying a business man from one airport to another. So while the airline route is hard to predict at where I am at in terms of flying at the point, it is nice to know what other options or hopes I have of becoming a pilot. For further possible employment opportunities, I recommend visiting the organization's website.       

References 

About GAMA. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2018, from https://gama.aero/about-gama/

About NBAA. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2018, from https://www.nbaa.org/about/

NBAA History. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2018, from https://www.nbaa.org/about/history/

Global Airlines: Is It a Fair Playing Field?

The Department of State, working closely with the departments of Transportation and Commerce, constantly negotiates civil air service agreements with foreign aviation industries. The United States' "open-skies" policy was designed to eliminate government involvement in the commercial airlines' decision making in regards to routes, capacity, and pricing in the international market. Such agreement has successfully expanded throughout multiple nations, promoting increased air travel to and from the United States. The United States, as of today, has "open-skies" agreements with over 120 nations.

The United States and United Arab Emirates, has both agreed on an international treaty allowing "open-skies" for both operators. The agreement highlights that commercial carriers can operator within the air space of both nations as long as there is little to no government interference what so ever. In other words, the government can not regulate the operation and may not offer huge amounts of subsidies to its commercial carriers. Those subsides, if given in huge amount, may allow those international carriers like Fly Emirates to offer cheaper tickets and therefore competing with our own big long-haul carriers. According to the United States Department of State, the following are some of the highlights of the right and duties of parties under the agreement.

• The right to fly across its territory without landing.
• the right to make stops in its territory for non-traffic purposes. 
• Each Party shall have the right to designate as many airlines as it wishes to conduct international air transportation in accordance with this Agreement and to withdraw or alter such designations.
• On receipt of such a designation, and of applications from the designated airline, in the form and manner prescribed for operating authorizations and technical permissions, the other Party shall grant appropriate authorizations and permissions with minimum procedural delay.
• While entering, within, or leaving the territory of one Party, its laws and regulations relating to the operation and navigation of aircraft shall be complied with by the other Party's airlines. 
• Either Party may request consultations concerning the safety standards maintained by the other Party relating to aeronautical facilities, aircrews, aircraft, and operation of the designated airlines.
• The airlines of each Party shall have the right to establish offices in the territory of the other Party for the promotion and sale of air transportation.
• The airlines of each Party shall be permitted to pay for local expenses, including purchases of fuel, in the territory of the other Party in local currency. 

The purpose of the "open-skies" agreement, as mentioned above, is to provide fair competition among those international carriers (US Department of State, 2002). To sum everything up, flights operated by Fly Emirates into our airspace can not be funded by their government. If those flights were to be funded by the UAE government, then they must be conducted and flagged as a U.S. carrier. The Middle Eastern airlines are huge when it comes to government funds, specially Fly Emirate and Qatar Airways. Based on my knowledge, I can say that Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways are listed under this agreement too. They operate similar to Fly Emirates, in terms of government subsides and all of that good stuff. 

Our own long-haul carriers receive no where near those subsidies given to Middle Eastern operators by their wealthy governments. Although research does indicate that there have been subsidies paid out to american long-haul carriers. For example, recent research show that American Airlines received subsidized loans by the federal government on their first big aircraft orders (Leff, 2017). Our government is no where near being able to pay anything for our carriers. Our country is just not as rich as those Middle Eastern ones, and we must accept that. 

The Export-Import bank provides many opportunities to foreign companies to increase United States exports. They offer many financing programs, such as loans, at below-market interest rates in order to keep make foreigners contribute to our economic growth. So basically, when a foreign long-haul carrier purchases an aircraft from the United States, they get a much much lower export rate (EXIM, n.d.). With this being said, the amount those long-haul carriers pay when purchasing a american aircraft are is lower than the amount and american carrier would pay. This option is unavailable to United States carriers due to the fact that most of those companies pay huge amount of taxes when making aircraft purchases. 

There are currently many issues going on with the international air travels and the "open-skies" agreements between the United States and other nations. In regards to Norwegian Air, Posaner states the Following: "Norwegian Air has been waiting two years for approval for its Ireland-registered offshoot, Norwegian Air International (NAI), to start direct flights from Cork and Shannon to Boston, and later New York. Approval for such a move is supposed to be fairly straightforward thanks to the ‘open skies’ agreement, which allows any EU or U.S. airline to fly between any point in each other’s jurisdiction. But U.S. regulators are stalling, under pressure from some in Congress" (Posaner, 2016). If the stalling continues, the trade between Europe and our nation could get affected in a very bad way. On the other hands, our system is also facing a huge problem with international airliners, such as Emirate and Qatar, as they seem to be a very big threat to american airliners. Emirate and Qatar, are still to this day, receiving huge amounts of government subsidies. If this was to be true, it could raise madness within our carriers and it would mean that Emirates and Qatar are not complying with the "open-skies" treaty.  

Now, and in all honesty, I do not know where I stand regarding whether the global airline playing field is fair or not. One thing for sure, the United States government have every right in the world to go after and against those international airliners if they were to jeopardize business growth. Emirates and Qatar are supported by the world's richest governments. We all know that is not the case for airlines like Delta and Spirit, for example. I totally agree that flights operated by those long-haul international carrier must have no government interference if they want to conduct business on U.S. airspaces. Emirates and Qatar airways are where I want to end up but that does not mean they get to put our domestics airlines out of business, because that will hurt our aviation industry economically.    

References 

Export-Import Bank of the United States. (n.d.). Export Finance Solutions to Increase Sales for U.S. Businesses [PDF file]. Retrieved march 13, 2018, from https://www.exim.gov/learning-resources/publications

Leff, G. (2017, October 29). More Hypocrisy By US Airlines on Subsidies: Where's the Outrage Over the Latest Bailout? Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2017/10/30/hypocrisy-us-airlines-subsidies-wheres-outrage-latest-bailout/

Posaner, J. (2016, September 02). Norwegian airline clouds open skies. Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://www.politico.eu/article/norwegian-airline-nai-ireland-us-open-skies/

US Department of State. (2002, March 11). Air transport agreement: U.S. UAE air transport agreement of March 11, 2002. Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/ata/u/ 

The Next FAA Administrator

The Federal Aviation Administration administrator position has been empty since the early start of this year, when Michael Huerta decided to step down. With that being said, this marks the beginning of the question on who should be the next FAA head administrator. Well, it looks like our president, Donald Trump, already has someone in mind: his personal pilot, John Dunkin. Mr. Trump is recently speaking very high of his personal pilot, stating that he is very well qualified for the position. About the "very qualified", we shall see my friends.

John Dunkin, is no doubt, a very competent pilot. In his journey in aviation, Mr. Dunkin has managed airline and corporate flight departments, certified airlines from the startup under the regulations of the FAA, and had oversaw Trump's fleet throughout the presidential campaign (Naylor, 2018). There is no reason to believe why Mr. Dunkin isn't capable of being the head administrator of the FAA what so ever. Although, the fact that this marks the second time in which president Trump seems like he is pushing his personal pilot into such position raises many concerns to me personally. The FAA does not only regulate the aviation industry in the united states, it is also oversees foreign carriers that fly into into our domestic airspace. We currently have one of the safety industries and the FAA is who we should thank. I don't want to further explain how important the department is to every aspect of our current aviation system, as many of you would alread know. I just want to simply state that it is insane to even think of the how qualified a person must be to be place in such position.

I am one of the people that don't think very badly of Trump, like many others of course. I agree and disagree with some of the changes he had made ever since he got into office. There is a reason behind every move of our "precious" president as he is evilly smart. President Trump, thinking like the business man he is, has been trying to modernize our air traffic control system by privatizing it. So my aviation friends, as soon as you hear that Mr. Dunkin is elected the head administrator of the FAA, be certain that you will see such change. While there is no doubt that Mr. Dunkin has all the experience in the world to captain the FAA, it is to believe that he may lack the judgement qualification factor to carry out the role (Negroni, 2018).

Dan Elwell, acting FAA Administrator after Hureta's departure back in January, is also a candidate to take on the job full-time (Lanktree, 2018). Elwell is a former pilot, served various roles in the FAA, and worked as an executive representing the airline industry's trade association. On the other hand, Republican Representative Sam Groves, who is a member of the aviation subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is also a candidate for the position (Lanktree, 2018). I personally think that all candidates qualify for the job but I lean more towards Elwell and Groves. The reason being that both of the names mentioned above have had experience in a governmental structure and therefore would know how to guide the FAA properly. The position requires a person with very strong leadership qualifications.

Thus far, the FAA have been captained by very qualified personnel who were labeled great leaders after the impact they had on the system. The past candidates are whom we should thank for the success in terms of safety as well as other economical and regulatory factors in our current industry. Former FAA Administrator, Michael Huerta, was a very qualified man. "Prior to his appointment he ran his own consulting firm, advising clients on transportation policy, technology, and financing. He also served as a member of President Obama's transition team for the Department of Transportation" (FAA, 2018). J. Randolph Babbitt, who was in office before Huerta, was also a competent administrator. He was the head representative of all Airline Pilot Contract Negotiating Committee and later elected as the president before being appointed (FAA, 2018). As I have perviously mentioned, the administrator of the FAA is the back bone of our aviation industry and therefore he/she must obtain all the qualities needed to handle all responsibilities associated with the job.

My research on what is the actual job responsibility of an FAA Administrator came empty. I was unable to find what he/she are exactly responsible for. Do they just sign papers or are they involved in day to day operations of the field? Would love to find more information out. Although, I can make some assumptions. Besides the numerous tasks associated with such leader ship position, the FAA Administrator is responsible for promoting safety in the industry as well as work with the budget given to the administration by our government. I would hope that those head management people do not only sign papers as we will all be screwed one day. It is very important to choose the right person for this position. Their vision and leadership will phase the future of many aviators, multi-billion dollar companies, and the United States' aviation industry as a whole. In my opinion, the FAA has been very successful in creating the world's best and safety aviation industry.

References 

FAA. (2018, January 03). History. Retrieved March 01, 2018, from https://www.faa.gov/about/history/

Lanktree, G. (2018, February 26). Who is John Dunkin? Trump wants his personal pilot to head america's aviation regulator. Retrieved March 01, 2018, from https://www.newsweek.com/who-join-dunkin-trump-wants-his-personal-pilot-head-faa-819300

Naylor, B. (2018, February 26). Trump reportedly considering his personal pilot to captain FAA. Retrieved March 01, 2018, from https://www.npr.org/2018/02/26/588957046/trump-reportedly-considering-his-personal-pilot-to-captain-faa

Negroni, C. (2018, February 27). In pushing his personal pilot for FAA, Trump shows disregard for air safety. Retrieved March 01, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinenegroni/2018/02/27//in-pushing-his-personal-pilot-for-faa-trump-shows-disregard-for-air-safety/2/#beafe6b11db7