Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, who has led a tougher enforcement policy against Boeing since a panel blew off a jet in January, said he will step down next month, clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump to name his choice to lead the agency.

Mike Whitaker announced his pending resignation in a message Thursday to employees of the FAA, which regulates airlines and aircraft manufacturers and manages the nation’s airspace.

Whitaker has faced challenges including antiquated equipment, a surge in close calls between planes and a shortage of air traffic controllers at a time of high consumer demand for air travel.

“The United States is the safest and most complex airspace in the world, and that is because of your commitment to the safety of the flying public,” Whitaker said in the message to employees. “This has been the best and most challenging job of my career, and I wanted you to hear directly from me that my tenure will come to a close on January 20, 2025.”

Whitaker took the helm of the FAA in October 2023 after the Senate, frequently divided along partisan lines, voted 98-0 to confirm his selection by President Biden. The agency had been without a Senate-confirmed chief for nearly 19 months, and a previous Biden nominee withdrew amid Republican opposition.

FAA administrators — long seen as nonpartisan — generally serve for five years, but that has not happened recently. Whitaker’s predecessor, Stephen Dickson, also stepped down before fulfilling his full term.

Whitaker worked as a lawyer for TWA and spent 15 years at United Airlines, where he oversaw international and regulatory affairs. He served as deputy FAA administrator during the Obama administration, and later as an executive for an air taxi company.

Less than three months after he became administrator, a Boeing 737 Max jet lost a door-plug panel during a Southern California-bound Alaska Airlines flight in January, renewing safety concerns about the plane and the company. Whitaker grounded similar models and required Boeing to submit a plan for improving manufacturing quality and safety.

Whitaker said the FAA’s oversight of Boeing had been “too hands-off — too focused on paperwork audits and not focused enough on inspections.”

In August, the FAA said it had doubled its enforcement cases against Boeing since the door-plug blowout.

Senators from both parties praised Whitaker on Thursday before a hearing on the FAA’s air traffic control system.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), outgoing chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, which will consider Trump’s nominee to replace Whitaker, said the successor “needs to be ready on Day One to continue the job of restoring the FAA’s safety culture and providing real oversight of the aviation sector.”

After Trump was elected president in 2016, he considered his personal pilot for the top FAA job before settling on former Delta Air Lines executive Dickson.

Trump’s next choice could be affected by input from SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk, a close Trump advisor who has clashed with the FAA for slowing the Starship mega-rocket his company has developed.

Koenig writes for the Associated Press.