Travelers feel impact of reduced airport operations
Travelers feel impact of reduced airport operations
03:46
Air traffic control facilities across the country were short-staffed 32 times today, according to a recently released operations plan, and delays were hours long.
The problems continue, despite cuts to hundreds of flights designed to relieve stress on controllers struggling to deal with the government shutdown.
Staffing Shortages:
Nine staffing shortages were reported at control towers including Austin, Texas, Burbank, California, Newark, New Orleans, Ontario, California, San Francisco (twice), Tampa and Washington, DC.
Twelve reports noted TRACONs, which handle flights arriving or departing airports, were understaffed, including Atlanta, Chicago, Houston (twice), Newark (twice), Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, and Southern California (three areas).
And eight Air Route Traffic Control Center that handle flights at high altitudes, were also short-staffed in Albuquerque, Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas (twice) Jacksonville and Washington, DC.
Delays:
Flights were delayed an average of four hours tonight heading to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, according to the FAA. Flights headed to Houston’s William Hobby Airport were delayed an average of nearly 3 hours. The city’s other main airport, George Bush Intercontinental, saw incoming delays of 46 minutes, and departures were delayed 30 minutes. Flights headed to Phoenix were delayed 90 minutes and those headed to Chicago’s O’Hare and San Francisco International Airports were delayed an hour. Dallas Love Field had delays of 30 minutes and Austin, Texas and Manchester, New Hampshire both saw roughly 45-minute delays.
Since the start of the shutdown, Fridays have historically been one of the worst days for air traffic controller staffing. Union leaders say some controllers have taken other jobs to try to make ends meet during the shutdown.
There have been 482 reports of staffing problems requiring action since the start of the shutdown, according to FAA operations plans. The number is more than four times what was seen on the same dates last year.
