Unanimous Thumbs Up from eVTOL Industry as Mike Whitaker Confirmed as New FAA Administrator

Since May, rumours have been swirling that Mike Whitak­er would take over from Bil­ly Nolen as the FAAs new Admin­is­tra­tor. After five months, the CCO at Hyundai’s eVTOL Super­nal com­pa­ny, has been offi­cial­ly con­firmed for the posi­tion.

The fly­ing taxi indus­try, in par­tic­u­lar, is delight­ed with this appoint­ment. While there has been no news on the FAA web­site to date, social media has been abuzz with excite­ment.

Three of the lead­ing U.S eVTOL com­pa­nies tweet­ed:-

We applaud the Sen­ate’s bipar­ti­san, unan­i­mous con­fir­ma­tion of Mike Whitak­er as the next FAA Admin­is­tra­tor. The US leads the world in avi­a­tion safe­ty, inno­va­tion, and reg­u­la­tion, and this con­fir­ma­tion will pro­vide the strong and steady lead­er­ship to ensure that con­tin­ues.

— Joby Avi­a­tion (@jobyaviation) Octo­ber 24, 2023

Mike Whitaker’s unan­i­mous con­fir­ma­tion by the Sen­ate to be the @FAANews Admin­is­tra­tor speaks to the strength of his qual­i­fi­ca­tions and lead­er­ship. His expe­ri­ence work­ing across the tra­di­tion­al avi­a­tion and eVTOL air­craft indus­tries sig­nals a recog­ni­tion that our coun­try is poised…

— Archer (@ArcherAviation) Octo­ber 24, 2023

Wisk applauds the U.S. Sen­ate’s con­fir­ma­tion of the next Admin­is­tra­tor of @FAANews. We look for­ward to work­ing with Admin­is­tra­tor Michael Whitak­er as he leads the agency into a new era of #avi­a­tion — one that is elec­tric, sus­tain­able, autonomous, and safer than ever.

— Wisk (@WiskAero) Octo­ber 24, 2023

Back­ground

Whitak­er has spent his career in avi­a­tion, which began as an attor­ney for TWA in New York and Wash­ing­ton, fol­lowed by 15 years at Unit­ed Air­lines in Chica­go, where he served as Senior Vice-Pres­i­dent of ‘Alliances, Inter­na­tion­al and Reg­u­la­to­ry Affairs’. 

After leav­ing Unit­ed, Whitak­er served as Group CEO at Inter­Globe, India’s largest trav­el con­glom­er­ate, based in Del­hi. In 2013, he was appoint­ed by Pres­i­dent Oba­ma as Deputy Admin­is­tra­tor of the FAA, where he served for three years. While serv­ing there, Whitak­er obtained his pri­vate pilot cer­tifi­cate. He then served as Chief Com­mer­cial Offi­cer for Super­nal, a Hyundai com­pa­ny devel­op­ing an eVTOL Air­craft, until his FAA appoint­ment.