President Joe Biden on Thursday tapped veteran regulator and airline executive Michael Whitaker to be the next head of the Federal Aviation Administration, nearly 18 months after the last Senate-confirmed administrator left the post.

The year-and-a-half-long vacancy at the top of the agency has sparked significant concern from lawmakers amid a spike in aircraft near-misses, flight delays and cancellations and chronic staffing problems at air traffic control facilities — all as travel soars out of its pandemic-era trough.