By Carol E. Lee and Susan Carey 

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump, meeting with airline executives at the White House on Thursday, suggested adopting changes to the government's air-traffic control system and placing a pilot at the head of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Mr. Trump also promised the executives he would reduce government regulations, lower taxes on American businesses and fund infrastructure upgrades, all of which he said would help their companies hire more workers.

His agenda received a warm reception from those who attended the meeting, which included chief executives from United Continental Holdings Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., Alaska Air Group Inc. and heads of airports in Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Mr. Trump said the air-traffic control system is "totally out of whack" and said his polices would soon start helping companies such as airlines hire more people, including "rolling back burdensome regulations" and "lowering the overall tax burden of American businesses."

"We want the traveling public to have the greatest customer service and with an absolute minimum of delays," Mr. Trump said. "And we have an obsolete plane system, we have obsolete airports."

Since Mr. Trump's election, airlines and airports have said they are optimistic about his plans to lower taxes and raise infrastructure spending. But it isn't yet clear how those policies would be implemented.

Mr. Trump promised an announcement within the next three weeks that he promised would be "phenomenal in terms of tax."

He invited each of the meeting's attendees to speak.The head of Southwest Airlines said their top priority would be for the government to "modernize the air-traffic control system."

The meeting occurred amid disagreement over terms granted to some foreign carriers and uncertainty over the administration's travel ban on citizens of seven nations.

Among the airline executives on the guest list for the meeting: Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, the No. 2 U.S. carrier by traffic; Oscar Munoz, CEO of United Continental Holdings, No. 3; Gary C. Kelly, chairman and CEO, Southwest Airlines; Brad Tilden, chairman and CEO, Alaska Air Group; Bill Flynn, president and CEO, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc.; Dave Bronczek, president and chief operating officer, FedEx Corp.; Robin Hayes, president and CEO, JetBlue Airways Corp.; Myron Gray, president of U.S. operations, UPS; and Nicholas E. Calio, president and CEO of industry group A4A.

Doug Parker, CEO of the largest carrier, American Airlines Group Inc., wasn't able to attend because he was scheduled to host 1,600 employees at an all-day conference, the company said earlier.

Write to Carol E. Lee at carol.lee@wsj.com and Susan Carey at susan.carey@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 09, 2017 11:12 ET (16:12 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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