Scott Carson
Aero Club Remarks
"Ensuring a Thriving
Aviation Industry: Our Challenges and
Opportunities"
October 26, 2007—
My friends and colleagues—good afternoon. I am honored to be here. Few
organizations in the world have the aviation heritage of this wonderful
organization.
My father, as many of you know was a test pilot at
Boeing, and aviation has been a part of my life from the beginning. And I am lucky to count Bill Boeing Jr. as a
friend. It is a genuine thrill to
participate in an Aero Club luncheon.
But this is about much more than our history, as
wonderful as it is. The Aero Club – and
all of us – is about the promise of tomorrow – and making sure tomorrow’s
promises become reality by solving today’s challenges.
In preparing for today, I noticed that last month’s
speaker was our good friend Marion Blakey, and that next month’s speaker is
Giovanni Bisignani of IATA.
I am honored to be in such great company of true
leaders of global aviation, and I applaud the Aero Club for bringing us
together on a regular basis to share these important perspectives for our
industry.
It is great to see many familiar faces, and also
make some new friends as well. It is a
wonderful industry that we share…one worthy of celebrating when we get
together. However, it is also an
industry that is facing increasing demands and challenges. We face crucial
questions, and our answers will help define this industry for the 21st
century. Now, I can’t speak for
everyone, but I personally find that dialogue to be very exciting and
inspiring. We all know what’s at stake as we join together to meet these
challenges. Air transportation is at the
core of
Aviation and aviation-related industries are
responsible for 11 million jobs in the
Today, I’d like to share my perspective on a couple
of key challenges and opportunities we--as an industry--face. Tackling these challenges will be critical to
ensuring a safe, secure and efficient air transportation system.
The first challenge is to continue to improve upon
safety. Overall, our industry has a
remarkable safety record. Last April,
IATA released its annual Safety Report, which showed that
2006 was the safest year on record. The
2006 industry statistics show a hull loss rate of 0.65 accidents per million flights. Compare that to the rate back
near the start of the jet age in 1960, when it was 14.64 per million departures.
Or even 10 years ago, when it was roughly double the 2006 levels.
We’ve come a long way as an industry. But there are certain regions of the world
where this level of success has not been achieved. As manufacturers, Boeing and
other companies do our best to be relentlessly vigilant in ensuring the state-of-the-art
integrity of our products. But that’s
not enough. The safest airplane in the world is only as safe as the way it is
operated and maintained. As an industry,
we must work together in those regions of the world that are still struggling
to meet our safety standards. We must
help them to understand and embrace the high level of safety achieved in other
regions. We must work in partnership to
develop their infrastructure so that it can safely accommodate the rate of
traffic growth they are experiencing. This is a global problem, and it cannot
be handled in isolation. Together,
working globally, we must continue to help the developing regions of the world build
effective plans for improving safety. Boeing is increasingly finding that the
safety and security of our air transportation system affects our business and
we are prepared to work with industry and government on both fronts.
In the area of security,
we are finding many challenges. The days
of free and easy access to airport gates are long gone. Security lines, checkpoint screening and
luggage searches are an accepted part of the travel experience. We’ve all adapted to the unfortunate realities
of a post-9/11 world. Yet through it all, people want to fly. To do business, to visit loved ones, to get
away from it all—or to get back in touch.
And I hope you find that as inspiring as we do. We must balance our need
for a secure air transport system without disrupting the flow of people and
commerce. I believe that risk management
is the best approach to achieving this balance.
It allows us to identify and implement the best security solutions,
while recognizing the need to use our limited resources wisely. We should
strive for the greatest total risk reduction with the least impact on
operations and economics. I would
encourage Congress to really focus its efforts on those measures that truly
provide the most risk reduction to the transportation system -- and not succumb
to pressures to make quick decisions that do not provide a systematic approach
to security.
As with safety and efficiency improvements, the
security issue sounds a familiar and critically important refrain—it demands partnerships between government and
industry. Our governments must take a leadership role in defining how we can
work together to deal with the sensitive and even classified information
aviation security risk management requires.
In addition to safety and security, we must face
the challenge of making our air transportation system and our airplanes more
efficient. As our skies grow more
crowded by air traffic growth, demands on the air transportation system are increasing dramatically. Congestion already
has reached crisis levels in some regions.
We had more delays in the first six months of 2007 than in any year
since 1995, when the government began tracking the number. These delays are unnecessary. They are the result of antiquated processes
and systems in our existing air traffic management system. Government and
industry need to accelerate efforts to implement a Next Generation Air
Transportation System that will safely, securely and efficiently increase
capacity. Such capacity increases are
the only effective solution to accommodating the public’s demand and our
economy’s need for air travel.
Current proposals to ease capacity constraints in
the short term through congestion pricing or flight caps would be an admission
of failure. This verdict, I might add, was used by former Transportation
Secretary Norm Mineta here at the Aero Club in 2001 to describe the last time
we administered such demand management approaches. Demand-management
constraints only mask the need to modernize the air transport system; moreover,
they are inefficient, costly and detrimental to the
I’m proud that Boeing and Lockheed Martin have formed
a strategic alliance to advance the NextGen solution – seamlessly linking
ground-based systems with airborne systems.
This sort of collaboration is crucial.
The next step is to expand that collaboration to include our government
partners if we are going to achieve success.
We have a complex road ahead of us. We must remain focused on the need to fund
and implement the technologies and operational changes necessary for NextGen,
and not be diverted by short-term fixes.
Passing the FAA Reauthorization bill will be the
first step in ensuring that we are moving forward. Congress must commit to authorizing and
funding programs and technologies that will support a transformation to
NextGen. The public is demanding it and
our economic well-being depends upon it. But I’ve yet to mention the challenge
that is demanding more and more attention—improved
environmental performance. We have a strong environmental track record as
an industry. Over the past 40 years,
we’ve reduced noise by 75%. We’ve reduced CO2 concentrations by
70%.
We’ve virtually eliminated hydrocarbon emissions and soot. And aviation’s carbon footprint today is
limited to 2% of global CO2 emissions.
But, more remains to be done. Boeing is
committed to a 25% efficiency improvement in worldwide fleet fuel use and CO2
emissions by 2020 through improvements in upgraded equipment, as well as
improved carrier and airport operations.
Our 787 Dreamliner is 20% more fuel efficient than
comparable models and we are committed to pioneering new technologies that will
improve upon these types of efficiencies. We’re leveraging our Research and
Development investments on environmental improvements for future aircraft
generations with an emphasis on CO2, noise and alternative fuels. For
example, we are conducting the first biofuel demonstration on a commercial
airplane. This is part of our work to
unlock the potential of future environmentally progressive fuels. Boeing also
has partnered with airports, airlines and civil aviation authorities at various
international airports to implement operational improvements that reduce noise
and emissions. Trials of these
operational concepts have indicated fuel savings between 400 and 800 pounds per
flight, which translates to up to 2,400 pounds of reduced CO2
emissions per arrival.
Boeing recognizes that the environmental
efficiencies must be achieved globally in order to realize their full potential.
To that end, Boeing is proud to be a participant in the joint Atlantic
Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions between the FAA and the
European Commission, which we announced last year at the Paris Air Show. This partnership is an important step in
improving our air traffic management systems, and it is an important step in
reducing carbon emissions and airplane noise levels. However, as an airplane
manufacturer, we recognize that many of the environmental efficiencies that we
have accomplished will not be achieved if the airplanes we build cannot operate
efficiently in the airspace system. For
instance, even the most fuel-efficient airplane can’t achieve its highest fuel
efficiency if it is forced to fly indirect routes and to circle overhead
waiting to land. Therefore, it is
crucial that we do everything in our power to make NextGen a reality.
The challenges before us to provide a safe, secure
and efficient air transportation system are just that…they are challenges. But, they are also real opportunities for us
to define air transportation in the 21st century. We at Boeing are up for the challenge and I
am convinced that together—with industry, with government-- we can succeed.
In closing, it is truly an honor to participate in
the Aero Club luncheon – an activity whose roots go has deep as our industry
itself. Our ancestors in aviation started a wonderful journey. I am honored and
grateful to be sharing it with you. Let’s
do everything we can to leave tomorrow’s leaders with a healthy, thriving and
exciting aviation industry.
Thank you and I’d be happy to take any questions.