The committee will focus principally on five issue areas:  ensuring aviation safety, ensuring a world-class aviation workforce, balancing the industry’s competitiveness and viability, securing stable funding for aviation systems, and addressing environmental challenges and solutions.  The committee plans to meet five times over the coming year, during which it will develop its recommendations to the Secretary.

This 19-member panel of experienced aviation industry professionals has no small mission: to map a course that ensures the industry remains vital, competitive, sustainable, and--above all--safe. Because industry professionals themselves nominated the best and brightest from a true cross-section of the aviation community--airlines, transportation unions, manufacturing, general aviation, academia, finance, and consumer groups--I have high expectations for the committee's success.

And one more factor that promises success is the powerful toolkit we've made available to the committee; Federal rulemaking, proposing legislation to Congress and recommending private industry compliance measures. Randy Babbitt, FAA Administrator said "look, I don't care what tools the committee uses; I just want them to recommend action. Action we can take now or in the very near future, action that makes a real difference.