New Orleans, LA
I always welcome the opportunity to speak to ICAO, but its a particular pleasure to do so in New Orleans, a city that has made a remarkable recovery from the tragedy that devastated it 10 years ago.
After Hurricane Katrina hit this city in 2005, most of the city was under water or cut off by floodwaters, including much of the central business district where were meeting. The airport itself was closed to commercial traffic for more than two weeks, and it took a long time for airline flight schedules to return to their pre-Katrina levels. In fact, it wasnt until last year that passenger numbers surpassed the 2004 totals.
But New Orleans is back and vibrant and proud. I might add, it is also a gateway to a number of Caribbean cruises and flights. So its very appropriate that we meet in this city to discuss how we can improve aviation safety and efficiency throughout the region, particularly the eastern Caribbean.
While we're talking about the tragedy and recovery in New Orleans, I want to acknowledge that this group has not been without its trials. Nearly six years ago,Rosemond James and Gregory McAlpin of the ECCAA lost their lives during the earthquake in Haiti. We honor them and their legacy by continuing in their footsteps to increase aviation safety in the Eastern Caribbean."
Theres no question that the Caribbean is enjoying remarkable growth in flights and passengers, particularly from the United States. Last year, more than 7 million passengers who began their trips in the U.S. flew to the Caribbean. Thats more than any other international destination from the U.S. except for Europe more than to Mexico, and about twice as many as go to Canada.
When Americans are looking to get away for a tropical escape, they look to Antigua, Barbados, the Cayman Islands and Puerto Rico, among others. You may not have thought of The Pirates of the Caribbean movie as a travelogue, but it certainly showcased the beautiful islands, beaches and waters of the Caribbean.
Many Americans know that the last battle of our War of 1812 was fought only a few miles from here. But few Americans know that the last battle of our Revolutionary War was fought on St. Kitts. I know it, because I worked on a USAID project on St. Kitts and Nevis earlier in my career. The people there make sure you know that fact. They also want you to know that one of our founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, was born on Nevis. I remember those facts. I also remember that its a wonderful place.
While we think of the Caribbean as a major destination for vacationers, the region is also a major trading partner for the United States. Having spent that time in the Eastern Caribbean, I can vouch for the strength of those economic ties. We expect the amount of business conducted between the U.S. and the Caribbean nations to keep increasing.
For good reason, we think that passenger traffic between the United States and this region will outstrip growth in most other areas. We expect air traffic in the Caribbean to grow 5 to 6 percent over the next two decades, second only to the Middle East in rate of growth among the various regions of the world.
All those passengers require a lot of airplanes to carry them. We have more than 900,000 flights a year crisscrossing the seven adjacent flight information regions in the Central American and Caribbean region. Again, we can only expect that number to go up.
You may have seen Boeings prediction last month that airlines serving the Caribbean and Latin America will need to buy 3,050 new airplanes at a cost of $350 billion over the next 20 years. While Airbus most recent projections are slightly less optimistic, the manufacturers agree that the Caribbean and Latin American will show healthy growth. Many of these aircraft will be replacement airplanes, but maybe two thirds of those airplanes will be for growth.
For the manufacturers, of course, it means that the region will need a lot more airplanes. For those in charge of handling all those flights like you and me, it means that we have to stay ahead of the growth to make sure we can safely and efficiently manage the additional air traffic.
We can probably agree that weve done a good job to this point, but we can always do better. We are concerned about congestion and bottlenecks. We are concerned about elevating safety. Its in the FAAs interest as well as yours to resolve these issues.
Thats why were working together throughout the region to improve such areas as air traffic control, aerodrome safety and the other elements of aviation safety and efficiency.
In 2013, all of the members of ICAOs North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACC) Region signed the Port of Spain Declaration in Trinidad. The document set priorities for regional implementation of ICAO standards. Weve set the bar high; now we need to work together to push that implementation along.
Last month during a meeting of NACC Region directors general in Jamaica, the United States presented a working paper encouraging NACC states to take a fresh look at the regional performance targets in the Declaration and take actions to meet those goals.
We all should ask ourselves: What can we do by next year to make real progress on the goals?
That paper strongly encouraged the ICAO Council, through application of its No Country Left Behind initiative, to do what it can to help the regions members.
In particular, it puts a priority on goals for aerodrome certification and air navigation improvements. Those should be a major focus for us.
Were focusing on aerodrome safety matters as we seek a safe airfield environment for aircraft. Certificated airports have higher levels of oversight and thus higher levels of safety. As part of that, we have to reduce the potential for runway excursions, for example.
The Port of Spain Declaration included a performance target to increase the number of certified aerodromes in the region to nearly half of the airports by the end of next year. We need to make more progress on reaching that goal, and the FAA is ready to assist.
In addition, the implementation of Aviation System Block Upgrade-related technologies and concepts has been slow in many areas. The FAA manages a large portion of Caribbean airspace and we have had our own challenges implementing all the improvements that we and our air carrier stakeholders would like us to put into place.
But the key will be to ensure we are working together, coordinating across airspace boundaries and assisting each other where possible to provide users with a safe, seamless, and sustainable airspace in the Caribbean.
I spoke earlier about the effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. The nations of the Caribbean are well aware of the impact of hurricanes. Airports there deal every year with hurricanes, as well as tropical storms and other highly variable weather that add to schedule uncertainties and delays.
The more we can work together, the better we can handle all the challenges that are thrown our way. The FAA remains a strong advocate for the global implementation of Collaborative Decision-Making within an integrated Air Traffic Flow Management system. The development of a regional network in collaboration with ICAO and industry partners would contribute to greater operational efficiency in the Caribbean Region.
If we can meet those goals, it will improve aviation on a system-wide basis throughout the region and, ultimately, contribute to a more effective global aviation system.
On all these matters, we look forward to our conversations about how we can move this process along. From our standpoint, the status quo is not acceptable. It is in none of our interests to say that weve done enough. We owe it to the millions of people traveling to, from and within the Caribbean region to do what we can to make sure they get there safely and efficiently.
I want you to know that we at FAA are fully committed to work together with you to improve air traffic flow management and enhance safety throughout this important and growing region. We want to partner with governments, authorities, and industry in the region to achieve these twin goals of raising safety levels and efficiency performance to the next level.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to welcome you to this Eastern Caribbean meeting. We look forward to making progress on our common goals. I hope you enjoy your time here. However, most of all, I hope you leave with a shared commitment to work with us to make the Caribbean region an example in the aviation world of how partnership can raise the bar in safety and efficiency to the benefit of all our citizens.
No comments:
Post a Comment