DAYTON - Though skyrocketing fuel prices will force airlines to downsize and make other changes, the industry's long-term outlook remains positive, according to Robert Sturgell, the Federal Aviation Administration's acting administrator.

Through the end of 2008, hikes in fuel costs will lead to cuts in flights in some markets as well as layoffs and mergers, Sturgell told the Dayton Daily News on Saturday, July 19. Since airlines have their summer schedules locked in, the changes likely will accelerate in the fall, said Sturgell, who has headed the agency since 2007.

However, projections over the next few years call for higher demand in commercial and general aviation, he said. Last year, about 780 million passengers traveled by air; by 2016, officials expect that number to reach 1 billion, Sturgell said.

Still, cost-cutting efforts by the airlines shouldn't imperil safety, he said.

"Look, the worst thing that can happen to an airline is to be involved in an accident," he said. "They know that. And they have every incentive to maintain the great safety levels we enjoy today."

In addition, the FAA plans to take additional safety measures such as deploying runway status lights and rolling out a satellite-based control system over the next several years, he said.

At the same time, the FAA will continue to add new airtraffic controllers. People who entered the profession during the 1980s when President Reagan fired striking air-traffic controllers have begun to reach the mandatory retirement age of 56 and are leaving the field. In an effort to replace them, the agency last year hired some 1,800 controllers and it will add another 1,900 this year, a pace the agency expects to maintain for at least another eight years, Sturgell said.