Greg's Annual Check Up

A year into the job, Centerlines checks in with the ACI-NA President to look back upon the success of the 'Voice of Airports' under Principato's leadership.

Like planes, time flies in the aviation industry and a full year has flown by at Airports Council International-North America under the direction of President Greg Principato. Since Principato took control of the Washington-based association in July 2005, the organization has evolved and changed to "meet the opportunities ahead."

"I think it is fair to say that when people consider ACI-NA, certainly in Washington, I get nice comments wherever I go," Principato said, noting that kind words have been doled out from people working for the government as well as other aviation-related organizations, in regard to the association's staff. "I think they have noticed that we are doing some really high-quality work, whether it is policy background work or the way we communicate with the government with regulatory agencies. I think all of that has been noticed and certainly improved communications was one of my goals coming in.

"I'm not objective about this, but I really think that our policy committee staffs are second to none in terms of any aviation organization. There are a lot of good organizations out there, but I am very proud of the group we have here. We have been able to accomplish even more because of what people's perceptions and our good reputation."

Overall, from a 30,000 foot perspective, Principato said ACI-NA is entering into a two-year period where some policy decisions are going to be made in Congress and in the government that will affect the industry for decades to come. One such policy area is reauthorization.

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"We spent a lot of time this year augmenting our capabilities and doing the background work to develop data and gather the information necessary to make our points," Principato reflected. "We have begun a series of discussions and meetings with other aviation groups, with folks on the Hill and with folks in the regulatory agencies."

Principato said he had recently met with some well-placed officials at the FAA, "to begin to lay the groundwork for our specific recommendations in the next several months.

"Reauthorization is huge," he said. "With ACI World reporting passenger traffic up 6.5 percent globally, it gets into how we finance our airports and how they finance their passenger development with 300 million new passengers expected in the new system,. There is a lot of increased demand for air travel, and if we don't have the capacity to handle it, we can see what will happen."

"Having a chance to be here at this point in time to help shape Reauthorization legislation is a great opportunity," Principato said. "It is going to mean a lot of hard work for all of us here and all of our members, but I think it is a great opportunity."

Principato said one of the greatest assets the organization has is its wide network of members across North America."Our members are leaders in their communities, they know how to explain things to people and how to get things done," he said. "We have our associates - our business members - that fall into those same categories, we have organizations of state and local governments and business and labor and others who really, deep down, want to see the air transportation system work. "Air transportation really is an exciting product to sell and I think we are well positioned to make the most of our industry's opportunities ahead."