LaHood To Create Panel To Fix Airline Industry

JOAN LOWY

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday he will create a special panel to come up with a plan to restore health to the ailing airline industry, which is losing billions of dollars, shedding jobs and blamed for using a business model that critics say undermines safety.

LaHood, who made his announcement at the end of a daylong forum on the state of the industry, promised that within a year the panel will produce "a roadmap for the future of the aviation industry."

LaHood organized the closed-door forum at the behest of airline unions who say the industry has become dysfunctional, with the companies, their investors, their employees and their passengers all suffering.

Airlines were quick to tell the Obama administration what it can do to help — they want the government to pick up the entire tab for a new air traffic control system based on GPS technology instead of World War II-era radar technology.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which has been working on the new system for more than a decade, had already anticipated spending $15 billion to $22 billion on the "NextGen" program. But FAA's plans also call for airlines to shell out an additional $14 billion to $20 billion to install equipment in their planes needed to use the new system.