“We already have years of good work and a solid blueprint. We now need a focused and coordinated commitment from everyone involved to turn multiple commission recommendations into real policy with a measurable timeline of accomplishments,” Calio told the crowd.

Nicholas E. Calio

In his speech, Calio mentioned several different federal commissions that were established to bolster aviation in the United States. Dating back to 1993, the most recent of these entities was the DOT Future of Aviation Advisory Committee, which summarized the key characteristics of a successful aviation policy.

Regardless of the commission, the conclusions remained relatively the same. Among the recommendations were minimizing the sector’s regulatory issues, increasing access to international markets, attracting outside investments, hastening the deployment of a satellite-based air traffic management system, and addressing the tax burden.

Although these ambitions are good, they need to be implemented, rather than merely discussed, Calio maintains. “A policy — more accurately, recommendations written on paper, but not put into practice — is no policy at all,” he remarked. “Talking about it is not going to make it happen. We need to prioritize funding currently available to the most critical elements, which will create the most benefits in the short term.”