Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

The Department of Transportation has drawn fire from the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) for a plan to set aside for “current and future administrative support costs” $3.2 million of the $10 million appropriated by Congress under the Small Community Air Service Development Program. Created by Congress in 2000 to help small hub and non-hub communities achieve air service sustainability, the program drew a $10 million grant as part of the Fiscal Year 2008 omnibus appropriations bill. However, only $6.8 million will go to program grants to 16 communities due to the administrative set-aside. Those communities will receive between $100,000 and $750,000 each.
In a letter to DOT Secretary Mary Peters, AAAE president Chip Barclay called the 32-percent administrative allocation “unreasonably high.”
“By contrast, the Federal Aviation Administration received only $75 million in Fiscal Year 2007 to distribute more than 2,000 Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants–or approximately 2 percent of the $3.5 billion that Congress appropriated for the AIP program that year,” Barclay wrote.
&nbsp;Barclay noted that based on the average grant award, $3.2 million could have funded another seven projects across the country.

Airport Execs Rail Against DOT Set-Aside 

The Department of Transportation has drawn fire from the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) for a plan to set aside for “current and future 

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