Why did you think it was important to be involved with the trade association? And what is the importance of ASTA in the industry?

Well, look, I first joined ASTA when I opened Albuquerque for American Airlines in 1970.

79 so it's probably 80 i joined asta just because i wanted to know what was going on you know i'm really young i don't know everything that they do uh and so i was with asta during that period i was with asta during uh the delta airlines uh vacations period and uh obviously with the vacation.com period but you're coming in and out and joined with HRG and then now Hickory consistently to 2010.

My reasons then were different than they are today.

Today, I'm doing it to give back, to add, to help, to support.

My younger years, I wanted to just participate and understand what was going on in the business.

Today, you know, obviously older, I want to try to add value where I can.

So over the years, what kind of have you done specifically to both support ASTA and travel advisors? What are some of the campaigns, professional activities you've gotten involved with?

So, uh, Chris, your thoughts on AI, uh, for air traffic control

controlWell, you know, it, it, it's interesting.

This, this tool which will be fully rolled out in 2028 according to their plans, is really is, is air traffic control today basically reacts to situations, most notably weather.

This will help to be a predictable, uh, factor to help them plan in advance of those kinds of incidents, and will actually make the, um, uh, the air traffic control system presumably more efficient.

It will also have the impact of, uh, of potentially increasing capacity for the industry.

So this could be the biggest single item to modernize the entire ATC, which has been going on for 20 years with really little to show for, for the time and the money that they've put into it.

So I, I'm really excited about this.

Is it just attending through conferences or leveraging, you know, through, through the host agencies that they, they work with, and, and that sort of stuff? What would be your, your thoughts there?