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Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker listens to a question during a news conference on the FAA’s work to hold Boeing accountable for safety and production quality issues, at the Federal Aviation Administration Headquarters on May 30, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Mike Whitaker, will step down Jan. 20, leaving the key agency that oversees Boeing and the U. S. airline industry again without a leader.
Whitaker was confirmed to serve a five-year term last October. He set production limits and heightened the agency’s scrutiny of Boeing after a near-catastrophic door-plug blowout on a Boeing 737 Max in January, when he was months into the job.
Mark House, the assistant administrator for finance and management at the FAA, will becoming acting deputy administrator.
The agency has seen a steady change of leadership in recent years, some of the most tumultuous in the U.S. aviation industry, including two crashes of Boeing’s best-selling 737 Max planes and a subsequent grounding, the Covid-19 pandemic, and series of high-profile close calls and safety issues involving U.S. airlines and airports.
Trump’s last nominee to lead the FAA, ex-Delta captain Steve Dickson, resigned in 2022, midway through his term.
“You have seen leadership come and go – and through every transition you have kept air travel steady and safe. This transition will be no different,” Whitaker said in a statement.
A spokesman for the transition team for President-elect Donald Trump, who is scheduled to take office Jan. 20, didn’t immediately comment.
Trump has not yet nominated an FAA administrator. His eventual nominee, if confirmed, will face a host of challenges, including continued oversight of Boeing and staffing up and modernizing air traffic control. Shortages of controllers have vexed airline executives, who have blamed staffing shortages for congestion in some of the country’s busiest airports.
The FAA’s oversight of the space industry has also been the source of controversy. Leading companies, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, have been urging improvements to the FAA’s speed and efficiency in regulating rocket launches and spacecraft returning from orbit. Musk also declared this fall that his company would sue the FAA for “regulatory overreach,” after the agency fined SpaceX for license violations and, according to the company, held up test flights of its Starship rocket.
