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."

FMI: www.nata-online.org