Steve Dickson, who recently retired as vice president of global flight operations at Delta Air Lines, is in the running to become the next head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) according to news reports quoting White House officials. If selected, Dickson would be the first leader of the FAA in more than 30 years to come from the airlines.
Dickson spent 27 years at Delta rising to one of the top flight operations leadership positions at the 80,000-employee Atlanta-based company. Dickson flew five different aircraft types, was in charge of training, technical support and regulatory compliance for Delta. He is an Air Force Academy graduate, flew F-15s in the Air Force, and he has a degree in law.