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An Effective Lobbying Effort

Air Safety Week, May 1, 2006

After several months of wrangling, the United States and Venezuela have avoided a standoff in which both nations would have restricted each others' commercial flights. Back in 1995, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rated Venezuela as a Category 2 country under the agency's International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program. While most countries enjoy the relatively free reign of being under Category 1 to schedule, under Category 2, a country's carriers cannot use their aircraft or flight crews to enter U.S. airspace. Officially, Category 1 means that countries meet International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards; Category 2 means that they do not.

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So recently, Venezuelan officials at several levels started making a lot of noise about the IASA restrictions, saying that their safety and security processes have changed a great deal in the intervening decade. Furthermore, unless the United States suddenly agreed with that assessment by April 25, Venezuela was going to prohibit flights entering its airspace from Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines, Inc., and place restrictions on AMR Corp.'s operations through American Airlines. So, four days before that deadline, on April 21, the U.S. Embassy in Caracas and FAA announced that Venezuela was in Category 1. FAA officially credited this change of heart to two ICAO assessments that showed improving conditions in Venezuela. It also was reported that FAA officials had recently visited the country. >>Contact: FAA Public Affairs, (202) 267-3883<<

Government Industry

An Effective Lobbying Effort

Air Safety Week, May 1, 2006

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