Background and Summary The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
regulates nearly every aspect of the nation’s aviation industry,
including manufacturing, safety, and licensing. Recently, the
FAA has faced challenges in keeping pace with the growing
demands of air travel and overseeing the safety of the aviation
industry. These challenges show little sign of abating, because
despite recent drops in airline passenger traffic, the FAA
forecasts indicate that the aviation system will transport more
than one billion airline passengers annually in 2023. This is a
30 percent increase from the 757 million airline passengers in
2008. This growing passenger demand has led to growing
congestion and delay problems in the air transportation system.
Despite significant cuts in capacity over the past few years,
nearly 20 percent of all flights were delayed in 2009. These
delays have a significant economic impact on the national
economy. While estimates vary, it is clear that delays cost the
national economy billions of dol