Hi everyone. Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business School noted that
"Communication is the real work of leadership." I agree with that. We're in the process of
holding several events to communicate effective ly with our people. This week, we met
with ATO Directors and Vice Presidents as part of a Leadership Summit. On Thursday,
Administrator Huerta held a Town Hall event with the whole workforce. Next Tuesday,
Randy Park and I will be hosting an ATO Forum wher e we'll take your questions as well.
These kinds of events help us stay on the same page.
On that note, I want to share some of the important topics we talked about this
week. For instance, we discussed the importance of succession planning to ensure our
c ontinued success in the future. With as much as 41 percent of employees eligible for
retirement by fiscal year 2019, it's imperative that we train and develop our next
generation of leaders. The ATO has a robust set of professional development tools that
a re helping inform the FAA's Workforce of the Future initiative. These tools include
the Career Planning Program , the Succession Planning Program , Continuous
Leadership Development , and programs like the Technical Operations and Air Traffic
Leadership Development programs.
We also talked about the agency's new Caribbean Initiative, which supports our
Global Leadership strategic initiative. This will be a priority for us in the coming year. We
have a vested interest in making sure that Caribbean airspace is safe and efficient.
Many Americans fly there, and we expect air traffic in this region to grow 5 to 6 percent
over the next two decades, second only to the Middle East. The ne w initiative includes
working with our Caribbean air navigation service partners to improve air traffic flow
management and collaborative decision - making. The Caribbean Initiative is a good
example of how we're using data to prioritize our international ef forts.
In addition, we talked about the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems
(UAS). In 2016, the agency expects to issue a final rule to allow the use of small
unmanned aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds. As the rule is being finalized, the FAA
has granted more than 2,500 exemptions enabling UAS activity for many purposes
including aerial filming/moviemaking, precision agriculture, and power line and flame
stack inspection. Earlier this fall, we announced a drone registry, which we believe will
help build a culture of accountability and responsibility among users. The FAA will also
be providing operational subject matter expertise to NASA on a research initiative called
UTM (Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management) that will look at how unma nned
aircraft can be safely and efficiently managed in low - altitude airspace. Along with these
efforts, the Program Management Office is working with Mission Support Services to
develop a master program plan that will guide our UAS efforts and align them w ith the
broader agency initiatives.
These are just some of the topics we discussed this week, along with NextGen,
promoting ADS - B equipage, the FAA's safety compliance philosophy, and others. As I
noted, we'll be holding an ATO Forum this Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 1 p.m. ET in the FAA
Quesada Auditorium at Headquarters. You can send questions to us at
ATOCOO@faa.gov . See this link on how to view the event if you're not at Headquarters.
I hope you'll join us.
Thanks everyone.
Teri L. Bristol
ATO Chief Operating Officer
MEMBERSHIP AND MARKETING DEPARTMENT
