President Joe Biden announced that he would be nominating Phil Washington, the current CEO of Denver International Airport (DEN) in the United States, to become the permanent administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Biden renominated dozens of judicial candidates to key national security, judicial, and administrative posts on January 3, 2023, including the position of leading the country’s aviation regulator.
Washington has held the position of CEO of DEN airport since June 2021, when he took over the position from the former airport head, Kim Day. He was first nominated to serve as FAA administrator in July 2022, but the proposal was not approved by the country’s Senate at the time.
However, Washington is yet to receive confirmation for the Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
The FAA has been operating without a permanent administrator for around eight months since March 2022, when Steve Dickson, the former senior vice president of flight operations at Delta Air Lines and former head of FAA, resigned on March 31, 2022. Dickson took on the role of FAA administrator for a five-year term in August 2019.
However, in a letter to FAA employees dated February 17, 2022, Dickson said that he would be resigning from the post for family reasons.
Since then, Billy Nolen, the FAA’s top aviation safety official, has been in charge of the regulator on an interim basis.
