Bryan Bedford, Donald Trump‘s nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has misled the public, claiming to have a “commercial” pilot license that he does not hold, Politico reported.
Bedford, who serves as president and CEO of Republic Airways, was listed on the airline’s website as holding “commercial, multi-engine and instrument pilot ratings” as recently as Thursday, according to Politico. But after the outlet inquired about Bedford’s credentials, the airline removed “commercial” from the webpage on Friday, the publication reported.
According to Politico, Bedford does not have a commercial pilot’s license listed in the FAA registry. But Bedford has claimed since at least 2010 to have that kind of license according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine records of Republic Airways’ website.
Bedford does have a private pilot’s license, including credentials that he can fly multi-engine planes and fly in bad weather and at nighttime.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) told Politico that Bedford has passed “written and oral exams” to fly commercial aircraft. The department additionally said that Bedford had not “personally nor publicly claimed to be a commercial airline pilot.”
“Bryan never misrepresented his credential; it was an administrative error that was immediately corrected,” DOT said in a statement.
As Politico noted, The Air Current in an April 2025 article about Bedford also pointed out that the CEO is not a commercial pilot. “Bedford is a pilot himself, although not a commercial pilot, as he has sometimes claimed to be,” The Air Current wrote.
Given recent events, including the Jan. 2025 collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 over the Potomac River near Washington-Reagan National Airport that killed 67 people, many are looking to the FAA to improve the air traffic control system. Elon Musk, while leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, tried to lay off swaths of air traffic controllers but was stopped by the DOT. Trump blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices for the crash.
Bedford faced questioning last week from the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee as part of his nomination process. Members of the committee grilled him about how his company tried (and failed) to certify pilots who only met half of the federally required flight hours.
When questioned by Sen. Tammy Duckworth about whether he would keep the number of required hours to 1,500, Bedford would not give a straight answer.
“It doesn’t sound like a yes,” Duckworth said. “It sounds like you’re leaving the door open to reduce the number of flight hours below 1,500.”
“What I’m saying is I don’t believe safety is static,” Bedford responded.
