Airline executives and regulators often switch places

Apr 17, 10:15 PM EDT | Airline executives and regulators often switch places | By RITA BEAMISH and SHARON THEIMER | Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) -- What the airline industry wants from Washington it often gets, and no wonder. The people who regulate airlines on one day can become company executives the next - and the other way around.

Industry leaders who were once under the Federal Aviation Administration's authority now sit in top positions at the agency. Many former FAA officials and congressional aides have found lucrative jobs in the air travel industry or with its lobbying groups. One top official left the FAA two years ago to become the airline industry's top lobbyist.

Just Thursday, the law firm Jones Day announced that former FAA attorney Andrew Steinberg, until recently the Transportation Department's assistant secretary of aviation and international affairs, will join the firm's government regulation practice as a partner.

Throw in millions of dollars in campaign and lobbying money, and factor in the airlines' importance to lawmakers' home cities and states, and it adds up to a powerful industry that even some of the nation's most frequent fliers - members of Congress - can be reluctant to tackle. Broad deregulation and multibillion-dollar government bailouts are among the industry's major victories in recent decades. ...