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Billy Nolen
Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration
In office
April 1, 2022 – June 9, 2023
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byStephen Dickson
Succeeded byPolly Trottenberg
Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety of the Federal Aviation Administration
In office
January 1, 2022 – March 31, 2022
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byAli Bahrami
Succeeded byDavid Boulter[1][2]
Personal details
EducationEmbry-Riddle Aeronautical University (BS)[3]

Billy Nolen is an American government official who served as acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from April 1, 2022 to June 2023.

Prior to Nolen's appointment as acting administrator, he worked with American Airlines, Airlines for America, Qantas and WestJet in safety positions. He left WestJet in January 2022 to join the FAA and served as the associate administrator for aviation safety of the FAA, before resigning in April to become acting administrator. In June 9, 2023 he stepped down and was replaced by Polly Trottenberg.

Career

[edit]

Nolen first worked as a pilot for American Airlines in 1989 where he flew as a pilot and was type rated in the Boeing 757, Boeing 767 and McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft.[4] He joined Airlines for America on July 1, 2015, as the senior vice president of safety, security and operations after 26 years at American Airlines.[5]

He joined Qantas in 2018 as executive manager for group safety and health.[6] Nolen left his role at Qantas on February 24, 2020, to join WestJet as the vice-president, safety, security, and quality in Calgary, Canada.[7]

It was announced he would join the FAA on December 17, 2021,[8] and become the associate administrator for aviation safety on January 1.[9] The position had previously been held by Ali Bahrami, but he stepped down in June 2021 owing to harsh criticism after the Boeing 737 MAX groundings following two fatal crashes.[10]

After serving as acting administrator, he joined the company Archer Aviation in June 2023 as chief safety officer.[11] He also became a board member of the AAR.[12]

Acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration

[edit]

On February 16, 2022, the FAA administrator, Stephen Dickson, announced his resignation which would be effective on March 31.[13] On March 26, the FAA announced they had named Nolen as acting administrator until the Biden administration could find a nominee to be confirmed by the United States Senate.[14] He took office the day after Dickson's resignation.

In July 2022, the Biden administration nominated Phil Washington, CEO of Denver International Airport, to become the administrator and take Nolen's place.[15] His confirmation hearing was delayed upon questioning about his limited aviation experience and allegations of corruption during his time as head of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but he was renominated when the United States Congress went into its 118th session.[16] However, Washington withdrew his nomination on March 25, 2023, due to not having enough support.[17]

On January 11, 2023, a system outage occurred with the FAA due to the NOTAM system having a corrupt system file[18] that ordered all flights to a ground stop for the first time since the September 11 attacks.[19] The outage sparked criticism on the administration for not sufficiently upgrading systems.[20] Nolen responded by saying that his "agency is working to determine what caused the breakdown to ensure it doesn’t happen again."[21] On the day of the outage, Nolen was supposed to go to Mexico on a planned trip to review progress on recovering their air safety rating, but it was canceled following the issue.[22]

On February 28, 2023, Nolen announced a safety review following several aircraft near miss incidents in early 2023.[23]

On April 21, 2023, Nolen announced that he intended to resign.[24] In June 2023 he resigned and Polly Trottenberg succeeded him.[25]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Boulter To Serve As Top FAA Aviation Safety Executive". Aviation Week Network. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  2. ^ "David Boulter". Federal Aviation Administration. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  3. ^ "Billy Nolen, FRAeS". www.faa.gov. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  4. ^ "Aviation safety chief Billy Nolen to serve as acting FAA administrator – AeroTime". www.aerotime.aero. March 28, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  5. ^ Maxon, Terry (May 28, 2015). "American Airlines exec Billy Nolen joins airline group". Dallas News. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  6. ^ "FAA Selects Capt. Billy Nolen to Lead Safety Office". State Aviation Journal. December 20, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  7. ^ Frame, Chris (February 12, 2020). "Ex-Qantas Executive takes up role at WestJet". Australian Aviation. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  8. ^ "FAA Selects Capt. Billy Nolen to Lead Safety Office" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: Federal Aviation Administration. December 17, 2021. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  9. ^ Muntean, Pete; Swire, Sonnet (March 26, 2022). "Biden administration taps FAA safety official to be acting agency chief". CNN. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  10. ^ Shepardson, David (December 16, 2021). "U.S. FAA names WestJet official as new aviation safety chief". Reuters. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  11. ^ Shepardson, David (June 13, 2023). "Archer Aviation hires former acting FAA administrator". Reuters. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  12. ^ "AAR elects Billy Nolen to its Board of Directors | AAR CORP". www.aarcorp.com. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  13. ^ Duncan, Ian (February 17, 2022). "FAA Administrator Steve Dickson to resign next month". Washington Post. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  14. ^ "Top FAA Safety Official Nolen to Serve as Acting FAA Administrator" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: Federal Aviation Administration. March 26, 2022. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  15. ^ Thropp, Christine (July 7, 2022). "Phillip Washington Nominated for FAA Administrator Role". executivegov.com. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  16. ^ Liptak, Kevin (January 11, 2023). "FAA without permanent leader as Biden's nominee faces criticism". CNN. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  17. ^ Koenig, David; Min Kim, Seung (March 25, 2023). "Biden's pick to lead FAA withdraws amid shaky Senate support". AP News. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
  18. ^ Josephs, Leslie. "FAA system outage disrupts thousands of flights across U.S." CNBC. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  19. ^ Altus, Kristen (January 11, 2023). "Pilots say FAA computer outage that grounded US flights nationwide unprecedented". Fox Business. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  20. ^ Chokshi, Niraj; Walker, Mark (January 11, 2023). "F.A.A. Outage Highlights Fragility of the Aviation System". New York Times.
  21. ^ Shepardson, David; Kumar Singh, Rajesh. "Airlines' U.S. operations return to normal as FAA investigates outage". Reuters. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  22. ^ Shepardson, David (January 11, 2023). "Acting FAA chief cancels trip to Mexico after flight computer issue". Reuters. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  23. ^ Wolfsteller, Pilar (March 2, 2023). "US NTSB releases preliminary report on Austin near-miss". FlightGlobal. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
  24. ^ Walker, Mark (April 21, 2023). "Top F.A.A. Official Says He Will Depart, Aggravating Leadership Void". The New York Times. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
  25. ^ "Polly Trottenberg". www.faa.gov. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
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