Airline execs, regulators often switch places

"In an era of rising prices, JetBlue's low-cost fares have improved our economy in key parts of New York," wrote Clinton, D-N.Y. "JetBlue hopes to offer low fare connecting service to Cancun from these important parts of New York, and I am hopeful that their plans for expanding service will produce positive economic and other benefits to New York and our nation."

JetBlue got the route.

Volunteer fundraisers in the McCain and Clinton presidential campaigns have worked as airline lobbyists. President Bush had at least one airline lobbyist among his fundraisers, and airline lobbyists served on his transportation advisory team as he put his first administration together.

Former air travel industry executives hold front-row seats at the FAA:

• Hank Krakowski, chief operating officer of the nation's air traffic control system, is a former United Airlines vice president and was a committee member for the chief airline lobby group, the Air Transport Association, until he came to the FAA last fall.
• The assistant administrator in charge of government and industry affairs, Megan Rae Rosia, came to FAA after 12 years charting legislative policy as Northwest Airlines' government affairs director. The assistant administrator who coordinates strategic planning and works on FAA's budget with Congress, Daniel Elwell, was an American Airlines lobbyist and oversaw its international business.
• The FAA's acting administrator, Robert Sturgell, advised the National Transportation Safety Board before coming to FAA and had been a United Airlines pilot and flight operations supervisor.
• The FAA's top lawyer, Kerry B. Long, came from a law firm that had represented a Boeing subsidiary and two aviation companies: Mesa Air Group Inc., which operates a fleet of 184 commercial jets, and Pegasus Aviation Inc., which leases commercial jets. He recused himself from actions involving those former clients for one year.
• Moving from government to industry, Russell Chew served four years as the FAA's chief operating officer, after 17 years with American Airlines, then left government for a top position with JetBlue Airways.
• Delta Airlines' lobbyist roster over the past year includes former Sens. John Breaux and Trent Lott, at least 17 former congressional aides and at least four former Bush administration staffers.
• Former FAA Assistant Administrator Sharon Pinkerton oversaw FAA policy and planning, then went directly to the airlines' main lobbying group, the Air Transport Association of America. White House records show Pinkerton meeting with President Bush's budget team on behalf of the FAA in 2005, then returning two years later as an airline lobbyist.
• One of Washington's top lobbyists, Linda Daschle, wife of former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, is a former ATA executive who became the FAA's deputy administrator and then acting administrator in the 1990s before leaving to represent aviation interests. Last year her team was paid at least $440,000 to lobby for American Airlines.

The FAA says ethics rules prevent conflicts, but it plans to expand restrictions on safety inspectors who quit to take jobs with airlines. Former FAA employees who earned more than $148,000 there already are barred from contacting the FAA on behalf of new employers for a year. All former FAA employees are banned for two years from contacting the agency about subjects they worked on during their final year with the government.

The FAA plans to extend the ban for safety inspectors so they can't work on inspection issues for the first two years at a new job, spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

Still, lawmakers' personal stake in the airlines as consumers can have unpredictable consequences.

Then-Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., who supported airline deregulation, once suggested re-regulating the industry after a frustrating trip from Detroit to Washington that took 22 hours and two airlines to complete.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., expected to lose a vote to outlaw smoking on airplanes. But Durbin's colleagues in Congress, he said, proved unexpectedly sympathetic: "We spend more time on airplanes than most people."

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