FlightCentral

Good evening, and thank you, Paul (Rinaldi), for that kind introduction. I'm thrilled to be here in Atlanta.

Tonight we are recognizing the outstanding work of 15 controllers whose expertise and calm thinking under pressure helped save the lives of pilots and passengers.

These controllers charted a course for pilots facing low fuel, bad weather, icing, mechanical failures, hypoxia and more.

And while we are highlighting the achievements of these individuals tonight, I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the 15,000 controllers-and all the professionals at the FAA-who are doing excellent work each and every day of the year.

And I must acknowledge four people who are leading this organization through collaboration: FAA Chief Operating Officer David Grizzle; Deputy Chief Operating Officer Rick Ducharme; NATCA President Paul Rinaldi and NATCA Executive Vice President, Trish Gilbert. Thank you for all that you do. We have truly come a long way in the last two and half years or so, and it's in large part due to the leadership of David, Rick, Paul and Trish.

Now, the Super Bowl is only a few days away, and even though the Packers didn't make it, I thought it was fitting to share a quote from Vince Lombardi, which illustrates the importance of teamwork.

He said, "Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work."

And so it goes with air traffic control. Even though only a handful of controllers are being recognized tonight, the fine work of thousands of controllers is what helps to make America's airspace the safest in the world.

I want to congratulate the award recipients and celebrate the commitment to safety exemplified by these controllers.

As Secretary LaHood emphasized earlier today, safety is our mission.

In the last 35 months-that's almost three years-more than two billion people have flown on U.S. commercial aircraft without a fatal accident.

In large part, that's because of you...because the men and women of the FAA make sure those flights are safe.

FAA inspectors make sure the aircraft is safe to fly. FAA technical specialists make sure the radar and navigational beacons work. And FAA air traffic controllers guide the pilots.

Other FAA employees support these important functions. And of course, thousands of dedicated pilots, maintenance personnel, airport operators and others in the aviation industry are critical to the safety record as well.

Our goal is to maintain our safety record and improve upon it. Now is not the time to become complacent. Instead, we have to remain vigilant. America expects precision and perfection from the aviation industry, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The traveling public also wants-and deserves-an air traffic system that is efficient and that runs on time.

And part of that means maintaining and improving our aviation infrastructure.

As President Obama said during his State of the Union address last week, we need an America that is built to last.

America's runways, taxiways, air traffic control facilities and terminals enable people and cargo to arrive safely and on schedule. Our aviation infrastructure, combined with NextGen procedures, is the foundation for thriving commerce and a healthy economy.

In the past year we have worked very hard to make safety and infrastructure improvements in many areas.

We have improved runway safety areas at airports across the country. And we've improved situational awareness on the airport surface with ASDE-X at our 35 busiest airports. This gives controllers a more clear and precise picture of activity on the airfield.

We need an economy that is built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers and a renewal of American values. And the aviation industry is doing its fair share.

In our continuing commitment to safety, last year the FAA finalized a long-awaited flight and duty time rule for pilots, ensuring that crews receive more rest and better rest. This is a great leap forward for safety.

Let me add that we have also taken steps to address fatigue issues in the controller workforce.

Thanks to the hard work of NATCA and management members of the fatigue work group, the FAA has implemented several changes to mitigate the impacts of fatigue in air traffic control and thus enhance safety.

The work group made the recommendation, and we adopted it - to have a minimum of nine consecutive hours off duty preceding the start of a day shift. This change increased the time available for the most valuable type of rest, which is night-time sleep.

We have taken further measures to address fatigue, including increasing midnight shift staffing to a minimum of two persons. This is to facilitate human interaction in the control room and the cab and to allow for break periods away from operational position.

As an additional safety measure, we have introduced challenge and response procedures on midnight shifts when any air traffic controller is alone for more than 15 minutes.

We believe that these measures have had a positive effect and have enhanced safety. And we are continuing to work collaboratively with NATCA and PASS to reduce the impact of fatigue on our workforce.

Your efforts in the realm of safety are a core contribution to the entire aviation industry.

And controllers will continue to be a key part of what this agency does going forward.

Everything we do revolves around the safe and efficient movement of air traffic. Personally, I look forward to keeping that going. I look forward to working with you and to continuing the collaborative relationship we have forged over the last few years. We need your engagement and support to move towards a system that's safer and more efficient.

So how do I see NATCA and the FAA moving forward?

Well, clearly, this will be a collaborative effort to evolve our airspace. The transformation to NextGen is a pivotal period in aviation history and what you do every day will continue to evolve.

Tonight's awards honor not only the recipients, but recognize the evolution of air traffic control in the United States. Archie League is considered the first air traffic controller. He used a checkered flag for GO and a red flag for HOLD at St. Louis Airport back in the 1920s. His system was simple, yet effective.

In the years that have followed, we have progressed from bonfires and flags to radar and ground-based navigational aides. And now we are moving to GPS.

But there's something that hasn't changed at all. What remains the same is the commitment of air traffic controllers and the expertise and pride in moving this system into the future.

And we really do need to move our system forward. NextGen is the way of the future and we cannot afford to be left behind. Collaboration is all the more important with the technological changes that form the foundation for NextGen.

So let me say "thank you" for the progress on ERAM.

We now have initial operating capability in six new centers, in addition to Salt Lake City and Seattle where we've been operating continuously- namely Albuquerque, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland.

Your input was crucial in testing ERAM and making it operational. This is not just a computer system, and nobody knows that better than you. This is the foundation of NextGen and it's a huge transformation.

Your collaboration in creating NextGen airspace procedures, such as Required Navigation Performance and Advanced Area Navigation (RNAV) routes is vital to helping flights operate more efficiently and in a more environmentally-friendly manner. I place a very high priority on continuing to roll out these procedures...and, once we have them in place, to make sure they are used.

Every air traffic manager and his or her union were trained last year on how to constructively talk with each other-through workgroups-about technological procedures and airspace changes. This process gives everybody a seat at the table before final decisions are made. This improves our efficiency and effectiveness and it improves safety.

And safety is why we are here. In order to handle the expected growth in air traffic and the changes that NextGen will bring, we must constantly improve and enhance our safety culture.

One way to do that is to improve professional standards. This effort has been rolled out in the last few months to two dozen air traffic facilities across the nation. I congratulate you for that; it's a huge step forward.

In this program we are teaching controllers how to constructively talk with each another about safety before an issue arises to the level of requiring corrective action at a higher management level.

We are putting this program in place to facilitate this, but we need all of you to be open to having those discussions and provide us with information.

If you are separating aircraft adequately, yes, you followed the rules. But if there was a better, more precise way to do it, then we need to know it, and we need to move in that direction. So I ask you to challenge yourselves to think about safety in the broadest sense and to talk with your peers and managers openly and constructively about it.

Because you are on the front lines, controlling traffic, you bear a large responsibility. I've always liked NATCA's motto, "We guide you home." And we are very glad that you do.

But we have to change our mindset to embrace the transformation to the future. Our airspace is going to become more complex. It is going to be able to handle more traffic. And the tools of NextGen are going to allow us to do that.

Everyone needs to think about safety as something more than the immediate accomplishment of one task or one job. We need to look at how we do something and whether we did it in the best manner.

It is the role of each and every one of us in the FAA to be concerned with ensuring our system is as safe as it can be. This does not fall outside the job description of anyone whether they control traffic or not, whether you are in management or not. We are all in it together.

The path ahead is going to be one of transformation. We have done some really exciting things in the past few years because we have done them together. It has not been easy, but we have succeeded because we are working together through tough issues with open and honest dialogue. We have a huge checklist ahead. But we will get there. We will collaborate and we will maintain the safest system in the world. So thank you and I am looking forward to hearing more about the amazing work our controllers have done.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. It's a pleasure to join you today to break ground for the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport runway expansion project.

Here are the facts: Civil aviation contributes $1.3 trillion to our economy. It makes up 5.2 percent of gross domestic product. It generates more than 10 million jobs, with earnings of nearly $400 billion.

Airports like Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International are an essential part of the best aviation system in the world. This happens to be one of the fastest growing airports in the country. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport now serves over 22 million passengers a year. It ranks 22nd in the United States in total passenger traffic, with more than 600 flights a day. And it offers non-stop service to more than 60 U.S. cities, along with international service to Canada, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Mexico, Latin American, and Europe.

Now, as Secretary LaHood said, we Americans do big things-and that's why we're here to break ground on this big project. When work is completed in 2014, a runway that is 5,275 feet long today will have been extended to 8,000 feet. It will be wider, expanding from 100 feet wide to 150 feet wide. And it will have been shifted and elevated above the Florida East Coast Railway and the US 1/Federal Highway.

As Secretary LaHood mentioned, the airport sponsor, Broward County, estimates that this will contribute more than $1 million per day to the local economy at the peak of construction in 2013. It will also generate jobs - around 5,800 direct jobs, and another 4,000 indirect jobs.

This kind of activity is good for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. It's good for Broward County. It's good for the state of Florida. And, by providing jobs and strengthening our nation's aviation system, it's good for America.

So I'm delighted that we are supporting this effort through the FAA's Airport Improvement Program. We have issued a Letter of Intent to provide $250 million over 12 years in support of this $791 million project.

Big projects often face big challenges, and we've all had to work through a few of those on the way to today's ground-breaking ceremony. From today forward we will continue to work together until we watch the first airplane take off from the improved and expanded Runway 9R ("nine-right") / 27L ("two-seven-left"). Today, we focus on the future, but let me close with a thought about the history of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to illustrate how far it has come.

In the 1920s, a popular pioneer pilot named Merle Fogg operated the city's first flying service from a spot not far from the site of today's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. As told in the airport's history:

His tiny airfield was tucked into a spit of land just north of Las Olas Boulevard, where it meets the Intracostal waterway. Its primitive wood hangar was visible from the road. Big bold letters over the door proclaimed, "Merle Fogg Flying Service." One of his young admirers remembered that Fogg's landing strip was only about a block long. "It was surprising that he could take off in that distance, but he could."

What a difference a few years can make. Merle Fogg was a visionary who believed in a bright future for aviation. He did not live to see it all happen, and imagine what he would have thought about a runway such as the one this airport will have when this project is finished. But Fogg and his fellow Florida aviation pioneers paved the way to the kind of vibrant, growing airport we see today. And the vision of those who brought this project to life is paving the way - literally - for aviation's continued bright future.

Thank you for joining us today. And congratulations on this important contribution to America's air transportation system.

This first issue of 2012 explores some of the resources available to help you in your initial quest for pilot certification, as well as the lifelong quest to improve your aeronautical knowledge. Feature articles show you how to leverage the information power of aviation regulations and handbooks as well as provide tips to help prepare for your next checkride and find an aviation school that's right for you. The January/February issue of FAA Safety Briefing is now available online atwww.faa.gov/news/safety_briefing/. Check it out today!

Look up N-numbers, find advisory circulars, browse airport delays, and more-all from your mobile device.

Due to expected icy conditions, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management recommends that Federal employees remain off the road until 9:00 a.m. on Monday, January 23. Federal Government offices will open to the public at 11:00 a.m. Employees who commute to the office will be granted excused absence for the delayed arrival. Employees have the option to use unscheduled leave and/or unscheduled telework for the entire workday in lieu of a delayed arrival.

• Visit the OPM website for full details.

Thank you for that kind introduction. It's a pleasure to be here in Nashville with all of you today.

This is truly a pivotal time in aviation history.We are moving into the Next Generation air transportation system, or NextGen - transforming from the ground-based navigation of the last century to the satellite-based navigation of tomorrow.

We are also moving towards an aviation system that will be safer, more efficient and environmentally sustainable - with more direct routes, fewer delays and more predictability.

It's not just the United States. The entire world is changing the way it handles air traffic.

Now, we know that in order to meet the challenges of transforming our air traffic control system in the next 15 years, the FAA as an organization must also evolve.

Our agency grew around 1950s-era technology and software systems. And, I might add that these systems are extremely safe and work very well.

During that same time period, the computing power of a mainframe that took up an entire room now fits in a light-weight tablet. Cameras have evolved from film to digital. And the number of Web sites has grown exponentially from hundreds in the early 1990s to hundreds of millions today.

Likewise, we need to transform our system for managing air traffic too; NextGen is the way of the future. We cannot afford to be left behind, and it's important that all of us embrace this process.

In many ways, the FAA is at a tipping point where we have a lot of things happening at once.

We have the immense technological change of NextGen on the one hand, and we have a generational change in our workforce on the other.

Change of this magnitude is not easy, but it is a unique and exciting opportunity for all of us. We are facing a whole new way of thinking and operating. And we are positioning ourselves with stretch goals to meet these challenges in the months and years ahead.

We have taken a good long look in the mirror and we know we need to make certain changes that will serve as the foundation for our success in years ahead.

We're focused on streamlining shared services within the FAA to avoid duplication and increase efficiency. We're studying our current governance model to ensure we're prepared to manage issues across the FAA as effectively as possible. And ultimately, what we do comes down to people, 47,000 FAA employees. That's why we're also updating our human resources model to ensure we are attracting and retaining top-notch talent across the board.

As I talk about the FAA's strongest asset, its people, let me briefly describe the changes that are taking place in our workforce, in terms of generations, to illustrate the degree of change we are undergoing as an agency.

We are going from baby boomers to GenXers and Millennials in air traffic control and other areas.

The FAA hired a substantial number of controllers in the years immediately following the 1981 air traffic controllers strike. Those workers are now coming to the age where they are ready to retire.

Last year, about 18 percent of the air traffic controller workforce was eligible to retire. And we estimate that we'll need to hire about 1,000 controllers per year for the next 10 years.

Already in the last five years, we've hired more than 7,800 controllers.

The percentages for potential turnover are even more pronounced in other areas of the agency.

Let's talk about aviation safety inspectors. About 47 percent of aviation safety inspectors will be eligible for retirement within the next five years. And about 41 percent of our acquisitions workforce will be eligible as well as 31 percent of the agency's engineers.

I know many of you have studied engineering, science and math - or you are in school now - so let me tell you - all of those skills are a good fit for those jobs and the needs we have at FAA.

People are our strength, and we need a workforce that has, above all, a core commitment to safety and professionalism. But we also need to make sure we have people with the skills and talents needed for the NextGen air traffic system.

It turns out that what has been an ongoing and profound change in the FAA workforce has a positive side in terms of moving the workforce towards embracing new technology.

We have noticed that the Millennial workers have a very different orientation to technology. They are much more comfortable with all kinds of technology and they are demanding that we use it.

Rather than being nervous about new technology, they are anxious for the next upgrade. They are waiting in line for the iPhone 2 and 3 and 4 and 4S.

These new workers don't want to be handed a memo at work, they want to receive it automatically on their phones. And we're listening and changing. Several months ago we released MyFAA Mobile - which makes basic information from the FAA employee Web site completely available to employees.

And just yesterday, we took another step. We released a mobile phone optimized version of FAA.gov which provides much of the most popular information and services that pilots and industry stakeholders and the public at large are looking for. This will make all kinds of public FAA information easily accessible.

To continue our transformation, the FAA is working with many partners to develop and foster a workforce that is schooled in the STEM disciplines - science, technology, engineering and math.

This is not a matter of focusing on high schools or junior colleges. To do this, we must reach down into middle school and start fostering the kind of attention on STEM disciplines early on.

There's both a huge demand and a huge shortage for these kinds of skills in the United States.

I am very proud of our partnership with AIAA in this effort. And I thank you for your support. We rely upon you to help us meet the challenges we face in this area.

To promote STEM education, we are mentoring teachers and working with others to hold boot camps for educators. We encourage teachers to give their lessons with an aeronautical twist. For example, when we teach the laws of Sir Isaac Newton, we ask them to consider using the four forces of flight as an example - lift, weight, thrust and drag.

If they are going to talk about navigation, we ask, why not use a visual flight rules sectional chart to teach the lesson rather than the typical road atlas?

There's a myth that aeronautics is so difficult that the average teacher can't handle it, and we want to bust that myth.

Our partner in this effort, NASA, has developed an "app" for that.

We will be assisting with the launch this month of the "app" called Smart Skies, which teaches children basic algebra through a simple air traffic control simulation.

Instead of playing "Angry Birds," they can play air traffic control.

This is an ongoing effort and we very much appreciate the partnership with AIAA, the Air Force, NASA and others to continue to foster aerospace and astronautic education. It's in everyone's interest to support STEM.

And now I want to turn your attention to another issue that really does deserve everyone's support, and that is the upcoming reauthorization of the FAA.

The FAA's current spending authority expires on January 31. We have now had more than 20 extensions. We need an FAA reauthorization bill in order to give the taxpayers and the traveling public the aviation system this country deserves. When Congress returns to work later this month, the House will have only six days in session before this important legislative work needs to be accomplished.

This is something that is of extreme importance for the nation's economy. Civil aviation contributes $1.3 trillion to our economy and generates more than 10 million jobs. And NextGen is vital to protecting these contributions. The current system simply cannot accommodate anticipated growth.

In closing, I want to give you an update on a great NextGen project we kicked off in Houston yesterday.

We talk about NextGen as something in the future. But there are many benefits of satellite-based navigation that we are deploying right now.

Andin the Houston metro area we are creating NextGen solutions at two major airports and the surrounding airspace. These are part of President Obama's effort to fast-track needed infrastructure projects to help the economy and spur growth.

The FAA is creating Performance Based Navigation procedures, along with environmentally friendly Optimized Profile Descents, which allow aircraft to make managed descents at reduced engine power settings, thus saving fuel and generating fewer emissions.

These are part of the "invisible," but very real infrastructure of our aerospace system.

Yesterday we had our version of a groundbreaking on these important infrastructure projects.

These changes are forecast to save millions of dollars in fuel per year and also cut greenhouse gas emissions by thousands of tons.

We expect these "green" procedures to be completed in the next two years.

To do this, we are streamlining our process for environmental studies. And this streamlining is going to save a lot of time.

Rather than designing and engineering a set of procedures and working until all the "I"s are dotted before sending it over for environmental review - we are doing much of the preliminary environmental work concurrently with the design process.

This way we are able to identify and mitigate environmental issues earlier in the process.

We expect to shave a year off the process this way, and make these NextGen solutions available all the more quickly by doing this kind of workflow change.

That is what is happening in Houston and we hope it will serve as a model for other metro areas around the country as we redesign airspace nationwide.

This is just one example of the improvements we'll see through NextGen.

As we move forward, our goal is to reach the next level of safety and prepare our workforce for the future. This is a very exciting time in aviation. Together we are creating the template for a new system. I appreciate your help, your energy and your bright ideas as we embark on the next century of flight.