FAA chief Mike Whitaker said Thursday he would resign on January 20, 2025, which is when President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated.
Whitaker did not say why he was resigning. Originally, his five-year term was supposed to end in 2028.
In a statement sent to FAA staff, Whitaker emphasized the need for continuing increased oversight on Boeing and improving the National Airspace System.
“And through it all, our safety mission remains the same,” Whitaker said in a statement to FAA staff. “After all, you have important work that must continue — managing air traffic across the country, making sure aircraft are safe, integrating new entrants, and planning for the future of aerospace.”
Mark House, the assistant administrator for finance and management, will become the FAA’s acting deputy administrator.
Whitaker, a former FAA deputy administrator and former executive at United Airlines, was confirmed by the Senate unanimously in 2023, ending nearly 19 months in which the agency had no Senate-confirmed chief.
The agency has come under scrutiny in recent years for its outdated technology, air traffic controller shortage, a string of close calls and a systemwide outage in January 2023 that briefly halted all flights. The FAA’s previous lack of oversight into Boeing has also come under fire, following the two fatal 737 Max crashes and the Alaska Airlines blowout.
Under Whitaker, the FAA has ramped up its oversight on Boeing, and he has received continued bipartisan support from Congress.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, who chairs the Senate aviation panel, said Whitaker “has been doing an excellent job” on Wednesday, according to Politico.
Airlines Sector Stock Index Performance Year-to-Date
What am I looking at? The performance of airline sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets including network carriers, low-cost carriers, and other related companies.
The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more airlines sector financial performance.
Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.
