A Southwest Airlines plane approaches to land at San Diego International Airport. Bryan Bedford, chief executive of Republic Airways, has been tapped to lead the FAA. (FILE PHOTO. REUTERS/Mike Blake)
NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump named a regional airline chief to lead the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday as the agency contends with safety questions following a deadly crash in January.
Trump tapped Bryan Bedford, chief executive of Republic Airways, to lead the agency which manages the US Air Traffic Organization and is overseeing Boeing’s safety operations following a series of high-profile problems.
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The position requires Senate confirmation.
Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, cited Bedford’s more than three decades of aviation experience.
He said Bedford will work with the Transportation Secretary “to strongly reform the agency, safeguard our exports and ensure the safety of nearly one billion annual passenger movements.”
The FAA last week announced new restrictions on helicopter traffic around Washington’s Ronald Reagan airport, where an American Eagle airliner hit a military Black Hawk on January 29, killing 67 people.
The crash, which ended the United States’ 16-year streak of no fatal commercial air crashes, has added to concerns about the US air traffic control system, which some regard as an understaffed operation beset with old equipment.
The agency has not been spared staff cuts by Trump ally Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which seeks massive cost savings across the federal government. However, air traffic controllers were not included in recent layoffs.
The FAA has also been in close touch with Boeing as it implements safety and quality control reforms following a January 2024 incident on a Boeing 737 MAX in which a door plug blew out mid-flight. That incident followed two deadly MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
