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© St. Petersburg Times, published July 28, 2002
WASHINGTON -- At the Federal Aviation Administration, everyone has a mail code to show where he or she stands in the bureaucratic pecking order. The chief of rulemaking is ARM-1. The deputy director of free-flight is AOZ-2.
Combine that with an organizational fondness for acronyms, and it's not unusual to hear FAA officials saying things like "I'm ARP-10, and I need to explain that we've added SDF to the NPIAS in FY03."
Jane Garvey, who has headed the FAA for five years, proudly says she does not refer to herself as AOA-1. Once, at a meeting when she was overwhelmed by the torrent of acronyms, she turned to an aide and said, "Thank God there are only 26 letters in the alphabet."
For five years, Garvey has been something of an outsider at the FAA. Unlike many predecessors, she had not run an airline and wasn't a fighter pilot.
She was a former high school English teacher who had become a Democratic activist in Massachusetts. She headed the state Department of Public Works, ran Boston's Logan Airport and served as an official at the Federal Highway Administration.
Garvey was not only the first woman to run the FAA, she was the first nonpilot. She was also the first with a five-year term (a law Congress passed to stop rapid turnover in the agency's top spot).
As she prepares to depart on Aug. 4, she receives generally high marks for her accomplishments with safety, her improvements in the efficiency of the air traffic control system and her wit.
Garvey's wit is her most powerful tool, used to disarm her opponents and charm her friends.
When her agency tightened security last fall, Garvey told the airlines to stop giving passengers knives with their in-flight meals.
In a conference call, one executive asked her how first-class passengers could cut their steaks if the knives were banned.
"Let them eat meatloaf," Garvey replied.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which had often criticized her predecessors, has tremendous praise for Garvey because she has replaced the old hardware in towers and air route centers. Another factor: She approved a labor contract giving controllers substantial raises.
Controllers union president John S. Carr calls her "the most effective administrator in history."
"I've been in air traffic control for 25 years and Jane Garvey brought more equipment into the towers and the radar rooms in the last five years than all of the others in the previous 20 years," he said.
But Garvey also has her critics.
Some FAA employees have criticized her generous contract with the controllers and said it hurt morale at the agency and deprived other workers of raises.
Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, says Garvey earns a C for her work on safety because there were not substantial improvements, a B-minus for air traffic because there are still significant delays and an F for the security lapses that allowed the Sept. 11 attacks.
Today, Garvey often praises how the controllers on Sept. 11 quickly shut down the air traffic system and she emphasizes the improvements the agency made since the attacks.
In an interview recently, Garvey said her proudest achievements are the collaborations with the aviation industry and unions, because the agreements have led to new safety programs and a more efficient air traffic system.
Garvey, 58, said her lack of experience in aviation turned out to be a plus.
"It freed me up to seek advice and ask others," she said. "I knew I didn't have all the answers."
She hasn't decided on her next career. She is focusing on her daughter's wedding this summer and plans a bike ride through Maine. After that, she will consider what to do next.
"I expect -- I hope -- to continue to make a contribution in transportation," she said.
But she'll no longer be AOA-1.