Business Aviation Grappling With Security
Issues Aviation Week & Space Technology
10/06/2003, page 60
Edward H. Phillips
Dallas
Business aviation is working with federal
agencies to loosen noose around the industry's neck that is hindering
flight operations
BIZAV Battling Bureaucracy
Business aviation in the U.S. is struggling to expand in the face
of security and airport access issues that are suppressing the industry's
key asset--mission flexibility.
In the past two years, security has had an adverse impact on business
aviation flight operations, and the National Business Aviation Assn.
(NBAA), working closely with the FAA and the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA), is slowly making progress in its fight to
regain the ability to fly anywhere, anytime, with minimal federal
interference (see p. 62).
During the 25 months since the terrorist attacks against the U.S.,
the business flying community has slowly nursed its way back to
operational levels slightly above those experienced before Sept.
11, 2001. Robert Blouin, senior vice president of operations for
the NBAA, said the increase is occurring in both domestic and international
flight operations. The NBAA, which represents more than 7,000 companies
in the U.S. that use business aircraft, is holding its 56th Annual
Meeting & Convention this week in Orlando, Fla.
Despite these promising signs, the hard reality is that business
aviation faces significant challenges to its future here in the
U.S. Safety and security are the hot issues. Overall, the industry
has an excellent safety record, but "we keep telling operators
to stay focused on safety first, not [only] security issues, and
our members have responded to that plea," Blouin said.
Security, however, remains the single largest roadblock to the
NBAA's regaining access to airspace and airports that it had before
the attacks. "Security goes hand in hand with access, and now
we have security acting as the access lever for airports,"
not noise or weight-based restrictions that had been the chief problems,
Blouin said.
"We should have the same equal access to airspace and airports
as the major airlines," he said. But that is not the case.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, business aviation was
shut out of the political process and is still viewed by the Secret
Service as a potential threat to security that cannot be adequately
controlled.
Nowhere is this discrimination more visible than at Washington
Ronald Reagan National Airport. President Bush ordered the airport
reopened to the airlines soon after the attacks, but business aviation
remains banned from the facility. Because of its mission to protect
the President, the Secret Service--not the TSA and FAA--continue
to block access to Reagan National. In Blouin's opinion, the Secret
Service is "not interested in creating dialogue with the business
aviation community."
In the FAA reauthorization bill, Congress is considering whether
to mandate that the Homeland Security Dept. have a program in place
aimed at allowing general aviation operators with approved security
programs access to National airport. Despite good intentions by
Congress, "the Secret Service is still calling the shots and
the TSA is not the master of its own destiny inside the Beltway,"
Blouin said.
Credit: JOSEPH PRIES
The National Business
Aviation Assn. wants equal access to U.S. airports on a par
with major airlines, but that goal may take years to accomplish
on a nationwide scale.
To regain even restricted access, Blouin said two things would
have to happen. First, the business aviation community must craft
a formal and effective technical and logistical response to federal
security concerns, and second, a firm political response from the
White House is necessary to reopen the airport to business flying.
In the interim, the NBAA and TSA are gradually developing a new
program that grants qualified Part 91 operators a TSA Access Certificate.
The agency is considering the TSAAC as a national security standard.
It would be required for Part 91 operators desiring to fly into
airports now accessible only to the airlines.
The TSAAC has evolved from the Security Letter of Authorization
created by close cooperation between the FAA and NBAA only days
after the attacks, which allowed some operators to get back in the
air and conduct business. But with creation of the TSA, the bureaucratic
landscape has changed significantly, especially for flight departments
operating under Part 91.
"THE TSA WANTS to study [performance standards] for a microcosm
of business aviation, and that's exactly what the TSAAC program
allows them to do," Blouin said. As a result, the TSA and NBAA
have established a voluntary program that now includes more than
30 companies that have applied for a TSAAC. These operators are
based at Teterboro and Morristown, N.J., and White Plains, N.Y.
"The benefit that operators receive for participating in the
program is that they can bypass the waiver office at TSA for [conducting]
international flights," Blouin said.
Plans call for the NBAA to expand the program to more operators
in other regions of the U.S. But NBAA officials are moving slowly
and methodically to avoid encountering any administrative turbulence.
"TSA knows that our ultimate goal is equal access to airports
on a par with Part 121 carriers. We will not get there overnight
and must break down the process into manageable bits for Part 91
operators." As of September, about 14 flight departments have
secured a certificate.
Credit: CESSNA AIRCRAFT
The Transportation Security
Administration is scrutinizing a small number of FAR Part 91
business aircraft operators to determine the effectiveness of
their security programs.
Although it's unknown whether the TSA will launch the TSAAC program
on a nationwide basis, "it's been a long, arduous road so far"
to achieve limited success, Blouin said. "We have to remember
that the TSA has no budget, no mandate and no congressional pressure
to do TSAAC. It's all voluntary work and it's a very fragile program
right now." If resources are lost, "we're going to be
pushed back farther," he said.
In the past 24 months, cooperation with the TSA and FAA has paid
dividends for NBAA members. "We are much farther ahead simply
because we now know people at the TSA, FBI and Secret Service"--a
situation that was unnecessary before Sept. 11, 2001.
In addition, NBAA personnel at the FAA's Air Traffic Control Command
Center in Herndon, Va., "are only two desks away from federal
personnel who create Temporary Flight Restrictions [TFRs] and Notices
To Airmen that can adversely affect flight operations nationwide."
As a result, the NBAA can quickly notify its members of impending
restrictions.
Long-term TFRs, some of which can remain in effect for up to 12
hr., are designed to protect the President and other high-ranking
government officials during travel. But often these restrictions
keep general aviation and business aircraft on the ground and suffocate
commerce in the process. Airlines operating into airports affected
by the TFRs are exempt, chiefly because "they X-ray some guy's
shoes," Blouin said.
The NBAA has obtained some relief for its members by convincing
federal agencies to adopt "surgically specific" TFRs that
satisfy the Secret Service's security requirements while allowing
commerce to continue during a majority of the effective time. Although
these changes are an improvement, "we still have these blocks
of time that the airspace and airports are not available to us,"
Blouin said.
ALTHOUGH FLIGHT departments are logging more hours, many companies
have opted to keep their aircraft instead of buying new models.
That reluctance, spurred chiefly by lingering concerns about the
economy, continues to be a factor in the current downturn in sales
of new business aircraft. In addition, fractional ownership programs
are still adding clients, albeit at a slow rate.
As for the future, the NBAA plans to partner with groups in other
parts of the world to increase awareness about the advantages of
business flying. He considers the Asian region, and in particular
China, as the next frontier for growth. The NBAA also plans to expand
the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition as well
as its counterpart in Latin America, LABACE. "We are going
to look for opportunities in other regions, too, but we'll do that
with international partners," Blouin said.
