After just over a year on the job, the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration will leave the agency this summer, leaving Secretary Pete Buttigieg under pressure, and the White House to go for a quick headhunt to find a replacement , after President Joe Biden's first choice withdrew last month from the candidature.
Looking back, Nolen was named FAA safety chief in January 2022, and appointed acting administrator later that year. A former commercial airline captain, he has held several industry safety roles, including as senior vice president for safety, security and operations at Airlines for America and executive manager for group safety and health at Qantas Airways.
Billy Nolen, said in a memo to staff that it has been a dream job.
''But now it is time for a new captain to guide the FAA,'' Nolen said in the memo. ''I told (Transportation Secretary Pete) Buttigieg and notified the White House that I will depart as a new nominee is named this summer."
Prior to joining the FAA, Nolen served as vice president for safety, security and quality for Canada’s WestJet Airlines. He also led the Aviation Safety Action Program at American Airlines.
Nolen is a U.S. Army veteran fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter pilot. He holds a Bachelor of Science in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and specialized aviation safety management certificates from the University of Southern California, U.S. Army Safety Center and the U.S. Navy Postgraduate School.
Biden's first pick, Denver International Airport CEO Phillip Washington, withdrew in March after it became clear his nomination was dead in the Senate Commerce Committee, where Democrats hold just a one-vote majority.
Washington faced stiff opposition from Republicans, who said he lacked enough aviation experience, and failed to win public support from an independent and a moderate Democrat on the committee.
Some Republican senators said Nolen — a former airline pilot who briefly ran the FAA's safety office — would have been a better choice, but there was no indication that he was under consideration.
Asked two weeks ago whether Nolen might be nominated for the job, Buttigieg — whose department includes the FAA — said he would not discuss names.
In a statement Friday, Buttigieg said,
''Billy is a tremendous leader, a true expert, and a dedicated public servant. He has kept safety as the FAA's north star through one of the most complex periods in modern aviation."
The Civil Aviation regulator has been without a Senate-confirmed leader since Stephen Dickson stepped down in March 2022, halfway through his five-year term.
The agency have been facing constant criticism after several close calls between airline planes, some of which appeared to have been caused by the FAA air traffic controllers' goof-ups , that cleared planes to use the same runway at roughly the same time.
Acting on the Aviation safety crisis, Nolen responded by convening a ''safety summit'' in March, which was attended by dozens of representatives from carriers, pilot unions and other groups. He has said aviation is safer than ever — there have been no fatal crashes involving U.S. airline planes since 2009 — but that the FAA cannot become complacent.
On Nolen's departure plan, Senator Ted Cruz said ,
I want to thank Billy Nolen for his leadership at the FAA & his steadfast dedication to aviation safety.
In his short tenure, Nolen , who was holding the post after previous chief Steve Dickson stepped down , was also a featured speaker at the 2022 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), joining European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) executive director Patrick Ky for the show’s opening day keynote session, in which the two discussed the shared, trans-Atlantic priorities for business aviation.
Not only the leading role, the FAA also faces staffing shortages that have slowed air traffic, and an outage in an alert system in January briefly stopped all departing flights nationwide.
