Trump’s Pick For FAA Administrator May Be Controversial With Pilots

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently doesn’t have an Administrator. While I know politics is so polarizing nowadays, it’s an extremely important role, since the FAA provides oversight of just about everything in aviation, and that’s something that’s needed more than ever. The FAA reports to the Department of Transportation (DOT), where Sean Duffy is Transportation Secretary.

So there’s some good news. President Trump has just nominated a new person to lead the FAA, though he may get pushback from a surprising group…

Trump wants Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford to lead FAA

On Monday, March 17, 2025, Trump announced that he has nominated Bryan Bedford to lead the FAA. Bedford is an experienced industry executive, with over 30 years of experience. In a social media post, Trump wrote the following (yes, he switches between Brian and Bryan, that’s not a typo on my part):

I am pleased to announce the nomination of Bryan Bedford to serve as Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). As the former President and CEO of Republic Airways, Mesaba Airlines, and Business Express Airlines, Brian brings over three decades of experience in Aviation and Executive Leadership to this critical position. Bryan will work with our GREAT Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, to strongly reform the Agency, safeguard our exports, and ensure the safety of nearly one billion annual passenger movements. Congratulations Bryan!

I’m a little confused by the reference to safeguarding exports, since that doesn’t seem like one of the FAA’s primary functions… what am I missing?

Anyway, I can’t say I’m particularly familiar with Bedford, though he seems like a good pick to lead the FAA. He has a lot of valuable experience in the industry, particularly with regional airlines, and I think that’s useful. He has been CEO at Republic Airways for over 25 years, since 1999, so that’s quite a tenure. For those not familiar, Republic is a regional airline, which operates flights on behalf of the “big three” US carriers.

In the past, we’ve sometimes seen pilots nominated to lead the FAA, and I think it’s cool to see an airline CEO selected to lead the agency, who has a good understanding of the way that airlines interact with regulators.

While not of any consequence, in 2010, Bedford was CEO of Frontier Airlines (when Republic purchased Frontier in bankruptcy), and appeared on Undercover Boss, so that’s kind of cool.

Bedford is opposed to the 1,500-hour rule for pilots

Broadly speaking, the industry has been supportive of Bedford’s nomination, including among airline executives and other industry figures. There’s one group that might not be onboard, though. As reported by The Air Current, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) has “concerns” about Bedford’s nomination.

Why? Well, Bedford has been a vocal advocate for eliminating the 1,500-hour rule for pilots. Republic, under the leadership of Bedford, had been pushing hard for the 1,500-hour rule to be eliminated. Bedford had insisted that “despite the rhetoric to the contrary,” eliminating the 1,500-hour rule would “enhance safety.”

For those not familiar with all of this, the US has the 1,500-hour rule for becoming an airline pilot, whereby pilots need at least 1,500 flight hours in order to get their Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate, required to land a job at an airline.

This is the highest requirement of anywhere in the world, as most other countries will let pilots fly airliners with just a couple of hundred hours experience. However, arguably the US takes this requirement to the extreme.

First it’s worth considering the origin of this rule. In 2013, the requirement for new airline pilots was increased from 250 hours to 1,500 hours, which is a massive change. This was done following the 2009 crash of Colgan Air flight 3407, which crashed primarily due to pilot error.

The catch is that both the captain and first officer on that flight had over 1,500 hours, so that wouldn’t have even been a factor there. While I can appreciate the logic of wanting to make requirements to become a pilot more stringent (250 hours was arguably too low), I’m not sure what exactly this was intended to address.

On the surface, the desire to find avenues that allow pilots into the airline cockpit with fewer hours makes sense to me:

• Lots of hours as such doesn’t make someone a good pilot, but rather it comes down to the training that they receive; in other words, someone spending 1,000 hours on a Cessna giving people first time flight lessons isn’t necessarily going to make them a better airline pilot
• There’s value to having dedicated flight academies where pilots train specifically for becoming airline pilots, as they’ll ultimately have more relevant experience than someone who just has 1,500 hours total
• Becoming a pilot is expensive, and that excludes a lot of people who may potentially be interested in this as a career path; if becoming a pilot can be made more affordable without compromising safety, I’d consider that to be a great thing

Not surprisingly, unions representing airline pilots are huge fans of the 1,500-hour rule, and oppose any efforts to lower that requirement. After all, pilots have been able to negotiate incredible pay increases, and that has largely been thanks to limiting the pilot pipeline by keeping requirements so high.

So if Bedford were confirmed to lead the FAA, I have to imagine that he’d push for the 1,500-hour rule to be abolished.

Bottom line

President Trump has nominated Bryan Bedford to lead the FAA. Honestly, this seems like one of Trump’s better appointments, in terms of picking someone who has a lot of experience in the industry they’d regulate. Bedford has been in the airline business for a long time, and is particularly knowledgable about the inner workings of regional carriers.

However, pilots may be opposed to Bedford, since he wants to get rid of the 1,500-hour rule. Well, or at least he did when he was CEO of an airline.

What do you make of Bedford’s nomination to lead the FAA?