Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&amp;I) Committee is set to consider its piece of a larger budget reconciliation bill Wednesday, considering measures to add $15 billion in air traffic control modernization and runway safety funding, as well as cut unobligated grant money for alternative fuels and low-emission technology projects.
T&amp;I joins several House committees that this week are beginning to vote on their respective portions of a budget reconciliation package. The various measures will be knitted together in a larger bill to be considered by the full House. Also, the larger bill is expected to be a vehicle for the renewal of the 2017 Trump tax cuts and will possibly include an extension of bonus depreciation. The Ways and Means Committee is anticipated to consider its portion in May.
As for T&amp;I, the committee included widely welcomed funding to replace outdated ATC infrastructure, calling the aging system a “long-neglected problem.” The total includes $2.64 billion for ATC tower and terminal radar approach control facility replacement, with $240 million set aside for contract towers. Among some of the other funding included is $2 billion for air route traffic control center replacement, $3 billion for radar systems, $4.75 billion for telecommunications infrastructure and systems replacement, and $1 billion for controller recruitment, retention, and training.
This funding has drawn strong support throughout the industry. More than 50 stakeholders collectively sent a letter, and many of them also sent one separately, to Capitol Hill endorsing the funding proposal. Signed by members of a “Modern Skies Coalition,” the letter calls the funding a “much-needed downpayment” on addressing chronic problems. “We have sounded the alarm for decades about the challenges created by aging technology and infrastructure, as well as the controller and technician staffing shortages,” the letter stated.
The funding proposal comes as the FAA, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, have signaled a significant push for expediency on air traffic control modernization. Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau discussed this push with the FAA, noting that while NextGen modernization has been ongoing for years, “some of the technologies and some of the capabilities have been delivered, but not in a timely manner and not to fully realize the benefits of some of those technologies.”
Rocheleau added, “We have outages throughout the system on a regular basis. It’s because we’ve had technologies that are in place from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. We’ve heard plenty about floppy disks, paper strips, and vacuum tubes.”&nbsp;
These outages have underscored the importance of modernizing the system, he told AIN.
“When we’re talking about old-fashioned copper wires and not moving quickly enough to the fiber-optic cables, more modern radars, more common operating platforms, there are a series of things that we use every day in the air traffic system that are functional, that are safe. But it is showing signs of decay. It is time that we really call people’s attention to this problem,” he said, noting that only 8% of the agency’s $2.9 billion facilities and equipment account goes to new functionality; the rest is essentially sustaining the current system.
This funding has included $110 million to sustain the existing copper wire telecommunications network. “We’re clearly leaning in on the infrastructure piece of this because we’re spending so much money just to keep these old systems operating.”
He noted that this requires not only White House support but a partnership with Congress.
Alongside the ATC funding, the bill would rescind unobligated grant funding for alternative fuel and low-emission aviation technology projects that was allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Originally, the funding was to have been available through September 2026. The committee estimated that about $200 million is unobligated.

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

House Panel To Consider $15B ATC Boost, SAF Grant Cuts

Transportation and Infrastructure panel to vote on its portion of the wider budget reconciliation bill

The House Transportation and Infrastructure panel is taking up its portion of the larger budget reconciliation package with a $15 billion bump in ATC funds.

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

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Rocheleau has faced series of crises since returning to FAA

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New developments at FBOs including regulations and noise issues; legal disputes; openings, acquisitions and mergers.

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