Incoming US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta starts the job with a lot of goodwill and an impressive background. But he will be expected to show some hard results and bring strong leadership to bear on key areas such as air traffic delays, competition policy and world liberalisation.
As the new administration began to take shape in Washington DC, it soon became apparent that air transport may have done well out of the new appointments. The good news is that Norman Mineta, the new choice for US Transportation Secretary, is not only a senior statesman but also a veteran voice on aviation on Capitol Hill. The bad news is that he will need every ounce of political savvy and vision if he is to fare any better than his predecessors in resolving the increasingly critical issues still facing US air transport.
The point was eloquently made by the headlines which accompanied Mineta's performance at the Senate confirmation hearings. The incoming head of the Department of Transportation (DoT) candidly admitted that air traffic delays were going to reach new highs again this year regardless of whatever action anyone may take. He is wise enough not to raise too many expectations on the issue. Not only did he spend years in the US House of Representatives sitting on the transportation committees, but chaired the review commission which in 1997 recommended an urgent overhaul for the Federal Aviation Administration.
And delays are not the only issues left unresolved during the Clinton era. The American Airlines bid for TWA provided a timely reminder that the question of further consolidation among the US majors has not gone away. Neither for that matter has the question of how to nurture new low-cost competitors, many of whom are once again sailing close to the edge. It is interesting that Rodney Slater chose to highlight predatory pricing by the majors as a major policy area as he gave a final parting shot before quitting the DoT. Even more interesting for the fact that the issue has been under investigation by the DoT for much of the past four years, without any apparent action.
And although it may not have made the local US headlines as such, Mineta also inherits a third major policy area where action is eagerly awaited. That is liberalisation of world air markets in general and the transatlantic in particular. To be fair to Slater, he did indeed help to get that debate started with the beyond open skies initiative. The recent signing of a multi-laterlal aviation agreement in Asia also gave some food for thought. But the tough policy task lies in engaging with the European Union, not to mention the small matter of UK bilateral talks which are at risk of outliving a whole generation at the DoT.
Not only are these issues still on the agenda, as they were at the beginning of the Clinton presidency, but if they were urgent to resolve then, today they are positively critical. Mineta appears ready to acknowledge that fact and comes to the job with all the right credentials to get things moving.
He appears to be a shrewd politician and problem solver with friends on both sides of US politics - that alone could be a gift in a Congress and a country so evenly divided between the two parties. Notably he is a lone Democrat in the new cabinet and his confirmation hearing was little more than a formality with a unanimous endorsement. Consumer groups too believe that they have an approachable politician who will give them a fair hearing. Neither is he a stranger to high office, serving as Secretary of Commerce in the outgoing administration since July.
Perhaps also the arrival of a new administration could provide the opportunity for some clear new thinking on some tough old issues. Clearly air traffic delays head the list. And as Mineta's former committee itself observed, the solution lies in reform at the FAA. At the very least that means giving the administration greater commercial freedom and access to long-term funding which does not rely on the vagaries of the annual budget merry-go-round. Administrator Jane Garveyhas herself pushed for as much. The privatisation of air traffic control (ATC) would delight the airline industry and represent a laudably brave and far sighted move, but it is probably an ambition too far. More realistic is to commercialise ATC within an FAA structure, though even that will be no mean feat to achieve.
On competition policy, too, there is need to unblock the impasse which has seen the DoT do little to punish predatory behaviour but at the same time seen the Justice Department block all moves toward greater consolidation. The two departments need to resolve their policy differences and spell out some clear future strategy. Along the way, they could do worse than consider applying old-fashioned anti-trust to aviation.
Finally, on liberalisation, the DoT needs to take up the beyond open skies initiative. Perhaps it is even time to grasp the nettle and work out a truly ground-breaking deal with the UK which could act as a template for broader discussions with Europe. Perhaps that is too much to ask. But it would do the world no harm to have some fresh new thinking out of Washington - provided, of course, that it actually delivers.
Source: Airline Business
