FAA Administrator Babbitt Meets with ACP

 

ACP members had the honor to meet with FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt and his key staff on October 15 in Beijing, during his first visit to China as Administrator. FAA officials attending the meeting with the Administrator included Assistant Administrator for International Aviation Di Reimold, Associate Administrator for System Safety Peggy Gilligan, Vice President of Air Traffic Organization Carey Fagan, Asia-Pacific Regional Director Jeri Alles, and Senior Representative for North Asia Pat Power.

 

37 people from 27 ACP member companies attended the meeting and lunch that followed. Several flew to Beijing from Shanghai, Hong Kong, and even the US to attend the meeting.

 

ACP Industry Co-chairman David Wang opened the meeting by warmly welcoming Administrator Babbitt and his delegation.  AmCham Chairman John Watkins commented on ACP as a successful government-industry partnership. Each ACP member present gave a brief introduction for themselves and their company.  The five ACP committees each briefed the Administrator on their initiatives and current programs in the areas of leadership and training, airports, General Aviation, Airspace/ATC, environmental protection, manufacturing, and airworthiness. The Administrator listened carefully to each presentation and provided many comments on each of the areas.  The other FAA officials also updated ACP members on FAA activities and priorities in China.

 

Administrator Babbitt noted that Chinese aviation faces many challenges due to rapid growth.  He emphasized the FAA’s belief in our government-industry partnership to mutually benefit Chinese and US aviation industries by improving aviation safety, capacity, and efficiency.  FAA will continue its strong support to ACP and its initiatives in China.

 

After the meeting, the Administrator and his party had lunch with the ACP members.  Each of the four tables had a different topic of discussion.  An FAA leader sat at each table. ACP members were able to sit at the table with the topic that was of most interest to them.

 

Administrator Babbitt and his team, and the ACP members all felt that the exchange of information in the meeting and lunch was very valuable to everyone.