CONTACT:       Caleb Tiller, +1 703-684-0836 ext. 138
                        Nicole Hayes, +1 703-684-0836 ext. 133

The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) -- the voice of business travel -- today applauded the announcement by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Randy Babbitt of the formation of an independent review panel to "examine the November 19, 2009 outage of the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI)," which caused a wave of flight cancellations and delays across the United States.

FAA explained that the panel will survey both the architecture and management of the FTI and recommend improvements. One panel report will examine the events of November 19, and a second will consider "the present and future architecture as it relates to emerging technology and future FAA systems."

NBTA Executive Director & COO, Michael W. McCormick, said, "The creation of this FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure review panel shows Administrator Babbitt's dedication to ensuring this country can benefit from a world-class air traffic system that meets our needs now and into the future."

For more details, visit http://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=11026.

The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world’s premier business travel and corporate meetings organization. NBTA and its regional affiliates – NBTA Australia / New Zealand, the Brazilian Business Travel Association (ABGEV), NBTA Canada, NBTA Europe, NBTA Mexico, and NBTA USA – serve a network of more than 17,000 business travel professionals around the globe with industry-leading events, networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. NBTA members, numbering more than 5,000 in 30 nations, are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers. They collectively manage and direct more than US$340 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually on behalf of more than 13 million business travelers within their organizations. For more information, visit www.nbta.org