Decent article.
Thoughts.....
If Roger Cohen believes what is spewing from his distorted mouth this time, (average CA has 8,000 hours and average FO have 5 years experience) he should have NO PROBLEM endorsing the ATP minimum for part 121 ops.
If the regionals do start to "right size" I don't expect to see a huge uptick in mainline jobs. I expect to see a DECREASE in part 121 pilot jobs. The airlines have several ways to increase ASMs without increasing pilots. For example Alaska has less pilots today than they did 8 years ago yet they have increased ASMs though many different efforts including bigger aircraft, work rules, stage length, etc.
http://atwonline.com/aeropolitics-regulation/article/has-regional-bubble-burst-0511
Industry changes will go far beyond Colgan accident
The flight took off in the darkness on what should have been a routine journey for the crew and passengers of the small regional airline. Upon descent, the aircraft was approaching its destination in a right-wing-low attitude when its heading changed 180 deg. and it fell out of the sky, killing all onboard.
But this was not the Feb. 12, 2009, crash of Continental Connection 3407, a Q400 operated by Colgan Air. This accident occurred decades earlier, on Oct. 11, 1983, and involved an Air Illinois HS748 en route from Springfield, Ill., to Carbondale. A generator had failed on the port engine a little more than a minute after departure but the crew continued on the 33-min. flight. In response to the problem, the first officer mistakenly isolated the starboard generator. Efforts to restore it failed but still the crew continued on rather than return to the closer departure airport. As the backup batteries failed, the instruments went dark and eventually the crew lost control of the aircraft. Ten people died in the accident.
During its investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board found evidence that the recurrent training provided by the regional airline “did not prepare the crew to understand and cope with the . . . problem and that the FAA surveillance did not detect the training deficiency.” Now, 27 years later, similar issues have been raised as the result of last year’s Colgan accident, in which NTSB faulted the actions of the captain for responding inappropriately to a stall warning. Among the contributing factors: The airline’s “inadequate procedures for airspeed selection and management during approaches in icing conditions.” NTSB also cited other areas of concern, among them pilot commuting and fatigue, confidentiality of pilot records and FAA oversight of regional airlines. It noted that the pilot “had demonstrated weaknesses in basic aircraft control and attitude instrument flying during annual checks, which should have made him a candidate for remedial training.”
Coming less than three years after the fatal crash of a Comair CRJ in Lexington, Ky., in which cockpit crew performance was cited as the primary cause of the accident, the Colgan tragedy has put the regional sector under the microscope. Seemingly, it also has reawakened lawmakers and regulators to the enormous role that regional airlines play in the country’s air transportation system.
Rapid Growth
According to FAA’s latest annual forecast document, the US regional airline industry more than doubled in size between 2000, when such carriers flew 39.7 billion ASMs, and 2008, when they flew 102 billion (the number dipped to 96.3 billion last year). Growth has been accompanied by structural change. Average aircraft size grew from 38.5 seats in 2000 to 55 seats in 2009 as the percentage of jet aircraft rose from around 25% to 65%. Average trip length soared from 285.5 mi. to 457.4 mi. and it is not uncommon for RJs to operate distances of more than 1,000 mi. The industry also has concentrated: In 2008, 96% of enplanements were carried on airlines belonging to 12 companies.
Furthermore, of 659 US airports with scheduled service, 492 are served exclusively by regionals. They account for 53% of domestic departures, up from 40% in 2000, and provide the majority of service at many key airports including Chicago O’Hare, the nation’s second-busiest.
As has been well documented, this growth has been good for regionals, their employees and shareholders. By and large, the sector has outperformed the major airlines financially throughout the decade even as majors have renegotiated capacity purchase agreements to reduce payments and remove aircraft from the regional fleets. Yet it is not clear that the impact of this transformation is understood fully by the majors themselves. For example, according to AirlineFinancials.com, Alaska Air Group and United Airlines have the only programs where regional revenues exceeded expenses last year.
And one thing is troubling: US regionals may be more profitable than their clients, but when it comes to eliminating fatal accidents they are lagging behind. To be sure, the segment has improved its safety performance dramatically during the past two decades, but over the past eight years every fatal accident in the US involving passenger fatalities (there only have been five) has involved a regional. Majors have not suffered a fatal passenger accident since November 2001.
Now it appears that the Colgan accident will be a tipping point for a reappraisal of how this segment functions and is regulated. Pilot commuting, for example: It long has been common for mainline pilots to travel long distances to their jobs but is a relatively recent development for their regional brethren and the industry has not adapted to this change.
An NTSB timeline of the day preceding the Colgan accident noted that the first officer had flown to Newark on a redeye from Seattle prior to reporting for duty on Feb. 12. The captain had commuted from Tampa on Feb. 9 and began a two-day trip on Feb. 10. There is no indication that either crew member had accommodations in Newark. The pilots caught catnaps on a sofa in the crew lounge, which was prohibited by airline regulations. “We have to recognize that we can’t just say it is the pilot’s personal responsibility [to report refreshed and ready], there is a role for the FAA and the carrier as well when they are scheduled and providing rest facilities,” says NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman.
Training and Fatigue
FAA is deeply involved in two major rulemaking efforts involving flight/duty time and pilot fatigue (ATW,8/09, p. 26) and pilot training (see article, p. 22) that have the potential to alter dramatically the economic underpinnings of the industry. While the agency has tried to tackle each in the past, current efforts are a result of the Colgan crash.
“Colgan has called into question so many things so fundamental to this industry, such as codesharing and alliances,” says William Swelbar, research engineer at MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation. Yet it is also clear, he says, that the symbiotic relationship between majors and regionals will not change: “Those are not going away. That is how this business operates.”
Nevertheless, he expects that new regulations will affect them. The scale and scope of the changes are unknown but the impact may be significant. In the wake of the horrific 1994 Roselawn, Ill., ATR 72 accident and another fatal regional crash that year, FAA mandated that all transport aircraft between 10 and 30 seats operating under FAR Part 135 must operate under the more stringent Part 121 standards that govern major airlines. The higher costs of compliance (and the rising popularity of regional jets) drove nearly all small turboprops from the skies.
“No matter what, we are going to see more regulation of both the relationship and regional sector . . . Colgan is the catalyst that makes us take a significant look at what goes into deploying capacity in this industry,” Swelbar believes.
Codesharing and Alliances
One expectation is that FAA will formalize a more active role for major airlines in monitoring their partners. There is a precedent of sorts. A decade ago, as international alliances accelerated, DOT and FAA began requiring airlines to conduct FAA-approved safety audits of new non-US codeshare partners “no less than once every 24 months.” However, the Air Transport Assn strongly opposes extending such a requirement to domestic codeshare relationships, arguing that FAA has sole responsibility for overseeing the safe operations of a certificate holder.
“ATA is just wrong,” Flight Safety Foundation President and CEO William Voss tells ATW.“The notion that FAA can enforce safety alone is naive. You can’t expect the regulators to be the only one accountable for the safety of the system. It happens internally at airlines and you need that layer of industry oversight and that has been demonstrated around the world.”
During safety hearings in Congress last summer, Senate aviation subcommittee Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said majors can’t have it both ways—all the benefits of codesharing without taking on the responsibilities as well.
“Pilots flying the 30-, 50- or 90-seaters should be working under the same contractual provisions as mainline pilots,” says Air Line Pilots Assn. President John Prater. “Brand passengers expect the same level of pilot training, safety, experience and rest whether they are in the back of a 30- or 300-seater. The only way to guarantee that is to ensure the mothership is not just pointing to the FAA and saying the regionals meet the minimum standards so it’s okay to sell tickets on them.”
On ALPA’s wish list is that all Part 121 pilots be required to hold an Airline Transport Pilot certificate with the appropriate aircraft category, class and type rating, requiring at least 1,500 flight hr. First officers currently must have only an instrument rating and commercial pilot certificate. The performance of the 24-year-old Colgan FO came in for close scrutiny by NTSB, and FAA has noted that the accident “focused attention on whether a commercially rated copilot in Part 121 operations receives adequate training.”
The Regional Airline Assn. notes that its members operate under the same standards and flight/duty-time regulations as the major airlines. At the FAA Aviation Forecast Conference, RAA President Roger Cohen stated that the average regional captain has more than 8,000 hr. of flight experience and that FOs average five years of experience.
For ALPA, of course, codesharing is also an issue of mainline pilot jobs and salaries. In a shrinking domestic market, more regional pilots mean fewer higher-paying mainline jobs. Indeed, the national pilot union has been accused of sacrificing the financial interests of members at regionals in favor of higher-paid pilots at the majors.
“Pilot labor has to be willing to accept some of the responsibility,” Swelbar says. “They devised the system where they traded low-economic regional pilots in order to cross-subsidize the rates of pay and work rules at the mainline level.”
Prater rejects this charge. “That is hogwash,” he says. “Each airline elects their officers and negotiating committee within their own ranks . . . The airline industry has created a system in which they no longer value that experience as much as they value low cost.”
Safety First
Voss says that in terms of safety, “The large regional carriers are doing an extraordinary job and then there are others who are not living up to the task so well,” In a hard-hitting column in a recent issue of the Foundation’s Aero Safety Worldmagazine, he wrote, “Everyone talks about the ‘one level of safety’ goal for all carriers, but the truth is that regional operators’ safety varies significantly. Several of these operators have world-class safety systems; others struggle with the most basic compliance issues.”
In June 2009, RAA launched a “Strategic Safety Initiative” partly in response to concerns arising out of the Colgan accident investigation. It is reviewing safety procedures and has commissioned a study with Washington State University’s Sleep and Performance Research Center to look at the impact of fatigue. The association also is creating a fatigue awareness program. It has made a number of recommendations concerning improving access to pilot records and background checks as well as on touchy issues like pilot commuting and use of CVR tapes outside of accident investigations. RAA members have committed to establishing both Flight Operations Quality Assurance and Aviation Safety Action programs.
Independent aviation consultant George Hamlin emphasizes, “The industry has done a great deal to make regional as well as legacy [airlines] very, very safe, and it is important not to lose sight of that.” But he also observes, “There has been a rapid expansion of the regional business. Anytime you bring in lots of people, the average level goes down, although in a strong regulatory system that shouldn’t be a problem. There is also the cost pressure. They’ve got to keep a lid on costs and use assets as efficiently as possible from a crew perspective or your company would lose the bid.”
Voss made the same point in his column: “Major airlines transfer of traffic to regional airlines has always been about reducing costs . . . It doesn’t matter to the regionals if the flights fly full or empty; they have no control over revenue. All they can control is costs and if they don’t do that there is a 100% chance they will go out of business.” He thinks it’s a matter of losing sight of the big picture. “The US never thought about the major/regional relationship in a systematic way,” he told this magazine.
21st Century Economics
That is likely to change and to Swelbar that’s a good thing. He believes much of the industry’s growth over the past decade was a bubble, an “unintended consequence” of the scope clauses in major airline pilot contracts that encouraged carriers to outsource more flying to regionals that could provide cheaper lift. Sure, he says, majors downsized internally during the 2000s. But, “in reality much of that capacity was shifted from the mainline to regional partners in the name of retaining market share.” He points out that regional ASMs increased 178% between 2000 and 2009 while mainline domestic ASMs decreased 27%. “The regional industry is too big,” he declared at the forecast conference.
Swelbar says such growth was fundamentally unsustainable at a time when consumer spending on air travel was plunging. The industry will get another chance to correct this. Citing data from Pinnacle Airlines, he told the conference that contracts covering 468 50-seat jets will expire between 2010 and 2016. This could result in a huge “right-sizing” for the regional segment, and perhaps an opportunity to take a breath and fully absorb the lessons learned from the recent tragedies.
NTSB Chairman to Address RAA
Regional airline safety will be a major theme of the Regional Airline Assn.’s 35th annual convention, taking place at the Midwest Airlines Convention Center in Milwaukee May 24-27.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman is set to deliver the keynote address at the convention’s General Session, May 26. Hersman, who was sworn in as chairman in July 2009, is serving a second term on the board. She has been a tough advocate for improving safety, challenging FAA and the airline industry to do better while acknowledging that commercial aviation has an admirable safety record.
Continuing the safety focus, RAA will host the first joint meeting of the RAA and Air Transport Assn. Safety Councils. Also appearing is Hank Krakowski, COO of FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, who will speak at the President’s Council Luncheon May 25. More than 1,400 attendees are expected at the convention and approximately 150 exhibitors had booked space as of March 1.
Thoughts.....
If Roger Cohen believes what is spewing from his distorted mouth this time, (average CA has 8,000 hours and average FO have 5 years experience) he should have NO PROBLEM endorsing the ATP minimum for part 121 ops.
If the regionals do start to "right size" I don't expect to see a huge uptick in mainline jobs. I expect to see a DECREASE in part 121 pilot jobs. The airlines have several ways to increase ASMs without increasing pilots. For example Alaska has less pilots today than they did 8 years ago yet they have increased ASMs though many different efforts including bigger aircraft, work rules, stage length, etc.
http://atwonline.com/aeropolitics-regulation/article/has-regional-bubble-burst-0511
Industry changes will go far beyond Colgan accident
The flight took off in the darkness on what should have been a routine journey for the crew and passengers of the small regional airline. Upon descent, the aircraft was approaching its destination in a right-wing-low attitude when its heading changed 180 deg. and it fell out of the sky, killing all onboard.
But this was not the Feb. 12, 2009, crash of Continental Connection 3407, a Q400 operated by Colgan Air. This accident occurred decades earlier, on Oct. 11, 1983, and involved an Air Illinois HS748 en route from Springfield, Ill., to Carbondale. A generator had failed on the port engine a little more than a minute after departure but the crew continued on the 33-min. flight. In response to the problem, the first officer mistakenly isolated the starboard generator. Efforts to restore it failed but still the crew continued on rather than return to the closer departure airport. As the backup batteries failed, the instruments went dark and eventually the crew lost control of the aircraft. Ten people died in the accident.
During its investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board found evidence that the recurrent training provided by the regional airline “did not prepare the crew to understand and cope with the . . . problem and that the FAA surveillance did not detect the training deficiency.” Now, 27 years later, similar issues have been raised as the result of last year’s Colgan accident, in which NTSB faulted the actions of the captain for responding inappropriately to a stall warning. Among the contributing factors: The airline’s “inadequate procedures for airspeed selection and management during approaches in icing conditions.” NTSB also cited other areas of concern, among them pilot commuting and fatigue, confidentiality of pilot records and FAA oversight of regional airlines. It noted that the pilot “had demonstrated weaknesses in basic aircraft control and attitude instrument flying during annual checks, which should have made him a candidate for remedial training.”
Coming less than three years after the fatal crash of a Comair CRJ in Lexington, Ky., in which cockpit crew performance was cited as the primary cause of the accident, the Colgan tragedy has put the regional sector under the microscope. Seemingly, it also has reawakened lawmakers and regulators to the enormous role that regional airlines play in the country’s air transportation system.
Rapid Growth
According to FAA’s latest annual forecast document, the US regional airline industry more than doubled in size between 2000, when such carriers flew 39.7 billion ASMs, and 2008, when they flew 102 billion (the number dipped to 96.3 billion last year). Growth has been accompanied by structural change. Average aircraft size grew from 38.5 seats in 2000 to 55 seats in 2009 as the percentage of jet aircraft rose from around 25% to 65%. Average trip length soared from 285.5 mi. to 457.4 mi. and it is not uncommon for RJs to operate distances of more than 1,000 mi. The industry also has concentrated: In 2008, 96% of enplanements were carried on airlines belonging to 12 companies.
Furthermore, of 659 US airports with scheduled service, 492 are served exclusively by regionals. They account for 53% of domestic departures, up from 40% in 2000, and provide the majority of service at many key airports including Chicago O’Hare, the nation’s second-busiest.
As has been well documented, this growth has been good for regionals, their employees and shareholders. By and large, the sector has outperformed the major airlines financially throughout the decade even as majors have renegotiated capacity purchase agreements to reduce payments and remove aircraft from the regional fleets. Yet it is not clear that the impact of this transformation is understood fully by the majors themselves. For example, according to AirlineFinancials.com, Alaska Air Group and United Airlines have the only programs where regional revenues exceeded expenses last year.
And one thing is troubling: US regionals may be more profitable than their clients, but when it comes to eliminating fatal accidents they are lagging behind. To be sure, the segment has improved its safety performance dramatically during the past two decades, but over the past eight years every fatal accident in the US involving passenger fatalities (there only have been five) has involved a regional. Majors have not suffered a fatal passenger accident since November 2001.
Now it appears that the Colgan accident will be a tipping point for a reappraisal of how this segment functions and is regulated. Pilot commuting, for example: It long has been common for mainline pilots to travel long distances to their jobs but is a relatively recent development for their regional brethren and the industry has not adapted to this change.
An NTSB timeline of the day preceding the Colgan accident noted that the first officer had flown to Newark on a redeye from Seattle prior to reporting for duty on Feb. 12. The captain had commuted from Tampa on Feb. 9 and began a two-day trip on Feb. 10. There is no indication that either crew member had accommodations in Newark. The pilots caught catnaps on a sofa in the crew lounge, which was prohibited by airline regulations. “We have to recognize that we can’t just say it is the pilot’s personal responsibility [to report refreshed and ready], there is a role for the FAA and the carrier as well when they are scheduled and providing rest facilities,” says NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman.
Training and Fatigue
FAA is deeply involved in two major rulemaking efforts involving flight/duty time and pilot fatigue (ATW,8/09, p. 26) and pilot training (see article, p. 22) that have the potential to alter dramatically the economic underpinnings of the industry. While the agency has tried to tackle each in the past, current efforts are a result of the Colgan crash.
“Colgan has called into question so many things so fundamental to this industry, such as codesharing and alliances,” says William Swelbar, research engineer at MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation. Yet it is also clear, he says, that the symbiotic relationship between majors and regionals will not change: “Those are not going away. That is how this business operates.”
Nevertheless, he expects that new regulations will affect them. The scale and scope of the changes are unknown but the impact may be significant. In the wake of the horrific 1994 Roselawn, Ill., ATR 72 accident and another fatal regional crash that year, FAA mandated that all transport aircraft between 10 and 30 seats operating under FAR Part 135 must operate under the more stringent Part 121 standards that govern major airlines. The higher costs of compliance (and the rising popularity of regional jets) drove nearly all small turboprops from the skies.
“No matter what, we are going to see more regulation of both the relationship and regional sector . . . Colgan is the catalyst that makes us take a significant look at what goes into deploying capacity in this industry,” Swelbar believes.
Codesharing and Alliances
One expectation is that FAA will formalize a more active role for major airlines in monitoring their partners. There is a precedent of sorts. A decade ago, as international alliances accelerated, DOT and FAA began requiring airlines to conduct FAA-approved safety audits of new non-US codeshare partners “no less than once every 24 months.” However, the Air Transport Assn strongly opposes extending such a requirement to domestic codeshare relationships, arguing that FAA has sole responsibility for overseeing the safe operations of a certificate holder.
“ATA is just wrong,” Flight Safety Foundation President and CEO William Voss tells ATW.“The notion that FAA can enforce safety alone is naive. You can’t expect the regulators to be the only one accountable for the safety of the system. It happens internally at airlines and you need that layer of industry oversight and that has been demonstrated around the world.”
During safety hearings in Congress last summer, Senate aviation subcommittee Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said majors can’t have it both ways—all the benefits of codesharing without taking on the responsibilities as well.
“Pilots flying the 30-, 50- or 90-seaters should be working under the same contractual provisions as mainline pilots,” says Air Line Pilots Assn. President John Prater. “Brand passengers expect the same level of pilot training, safety, experience and rest whether they are in the back of a 30- or 300-seater. The only way to guarantee that is to ensure the mothership is not just pointing to the FAA and saying the regionals meet the minimum standards so it’s okay to sell tickets on them.”
On ALPA’s wish list is that all Part 121 pilots be required to hold an Airline Transport Pilot certificate with the appropriate aircraft category, class and type rating, requiring at least 1,500 flight hr. First officers currently must have only an instrument rating and commercial pilot certificate. The performance of the 24-year-old Colgan FO came in for close scrutiny by NTSB, and FAA has noted that the accident “focused attention on whether a commercially rated copilot in Part 121 operations receives adequate training.”
The Regional Airline Assn. notes that its members operate under the same standards and flight/duty-time regulations as the major airlines. At the FAA Aviation Forecast Conference, RAA President Roger Cohen stated that the average regional captain has more than 8,000 hr. of flight experience and that FOs average five years of experience.
For ALPA, of course, codesharing is also an issue of mainline pilot jobs and salaries. In a shrinking domestic market, more regional pilots mean fewer higher-paying mainline jobs. Indeed, the national pilot union has been accused of sacrificing the financial interests of members at regionals in favor of higher-paid pilots at the majors.
“Pilot labor has to be willing to accept some of the responsibility,” Swelbar says. “They devised the system where they traded low-economic regional pilots in order to cross-subsidize the rates of pay and work rules at the mainline level.”
Prater rejects this charge. “That is hogwash,” he says. “Each airline elects their officers and negotiating committee within their own ranks . . . The airline industry has created a system in which they no longer value that experience as much as they value low cost.”
Safety First
Voss says that in terms of safety, “The large regional carriers are doing an extraordinary job and then there are others who are not living up to the task so well,” In a hard-hitting column in a recent issue of the Foundation’s Aero Safety Worldmagazine, he wrote, “Everyone talks about the ‘one level of safety’ goal for all carriers, but the truth is that regional operators’ safety varies significantly. Several of these operators have world-class safety systems; others struggle with the most basic compliance issues.”
In June 2009, RAA launched a “Strategic Safety Initiative” partly in response to concerns arising out of the Colgan accident investigation. It is reviewing safety procedures and has commissioned a study with Washington State University’s Sleep and Performance Research Center to look at the impact of fatigue. The association also is creating a fatigue awareness program. It has made a number of recommendations concerning improving access to pilot records and background checks as well as on touchy issues like pilot commuting and use of CVR tapes outside of accident investigations. RAA members have committed to establishing both Flight Operations Quality Assurance and Aviation Safety Action programs.
Independent aviation consultant George Hamlin emphasizes, “The industry has done a great deal to make regional as well as legacy [airlines] very, very safe, and it is important not to lose sight of that.” But he also observes, “There has been a rapid expansion of the regional business. Anytime you bring in lots of people, the average level goes down, although in a strong regulatory system that shouldn’t be a problem. There is also the cost pressure. They’ve got to keep a lid on costs and use assets as efficiently as possible from a crew perspective or your company would lose the bid.”
Voss made the same point in his column: “Major airlines transfer of traffic to regional airlines has always been about reducing costs . . . It doesn’t matter to the regionals if the flights fly full or empty; they have no control over revenue. All they can control is costs and if they don’t do that there is a 100% chance they will go out of business.” He thinks it’s a matter of losing sight of the big picture. “The US never thought about the major/regional relationship in a systematic way,” he told this magazine.
21st Century Economics
That is likely to change and to Swelbar that’s a good thing. He believes much of the industry’s growth over the past decade was a bubble, an “unintended consequence” of the scope clauses in major airline pilot contracts that encouraged carriers to outsource more flying to regionals that could provide cheaper lift. Sure, he says, majors downsized internally during the 2000s. But, “in reality much of that capacity was shifted from the mainline to regional partners in the name of retaining market share.” He points out that regional ASMs increased 178% between 2000 and 2009 while mainline domestic ASMs decreased 27%. “The regional industry is too big,” he declared at the forecast conference.
Swelbar says such growth was fundamentally unsustainable at a time when consumer spending on air travel was plunging. The industry will get another chance to correct this. Citing data from Pinnacle Airlines, he told the conference that contracts covering 468 50-seat jets will expire between 2010 and 2016. This could result in a huge “right-sizing” for the regional segment, and perhaps an opportunity to take a breath and fully absorb the lessons learned from the recent tragedies.
NTSB Chairman to Address RAA
Regional airline safety will be a major theme of the Regional Airline Assn.’s 35th annual convention, taking place at the Midwest Airlines Convention Center in Milwaukee May 24-27.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman is set to deliver the keynote address at the convention’s General Session, May 26. Hersman, who was sworn in as chairman in July 2009, is serving a second term on the board. She has been a tough advocate for improving safety, challenging FAA and the airline industry to do better while acknowledging that commercial aviation has an admirable safety record.
Continuing the safety focus, RAA will host the first joint meeting of the RAA and Air Transport Assn. Safety Councils. Also appearing is Hank Krakowski, COO of FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, who will speak at the President’s Council Luncheon May 25. More than 1,400 attendees are expected at the convention and approximately 150 exhibitors had booked space as of March 1.
