The lack of air traffic controllers led last night to delays at airports serving New York, Los Angeles and Denver. This is one of several ways in which the suspension of the government can affect commercial aviation.
Mary Louise Kelly, host:
Flights in the United States are again delayed today due to a lack of air traffic controllers. The federal regulatory authorities say that in the delays of flights last night at loaded airports serving New York, Los Angeles and Denver, the lack of personnel is to blame, and this is only one of the ways in which the continuing suspension of the government can affect commercial aviation. The NPR correspondent for transport Joel Rose watched this. He is here now. Hello Joel.
Joel Rose, Author: Hello Mary Louise.
Kelly: Let's start with delays last night. What really happened?
Rose: Well, the Federal Civil Aviation Department reports that the lack of personnel caused delays at three airports – Denver, Newarke, New Jersey, and Berbank, California.
Kelly: Good.
Rose: Perhaps the biggest problems were at the Gollywood airport in Berbank. For several hours there were no air traffic controllers on duty.
Kelly: Zero?
Rose: zero – dispatchers at another FAU facility in Southern California actually had to take care of the pilots. This led to average delays at this airport for more than two hours. In general, the FAU reports that yesterday, a dozen objects had a lack of staff, and according to the latest check today there are not enough eight objects, including towers at O'Hara International Airport in Chicago and Nashville. We are already observing ground transport delays at both of these airports, as well as at objects that serve the movement around large nodular airports, as well as in Newarke and Houston, there is a lack of staff, so we can potentially see even greater disorder today.
Kelly: Although you told us about the lack of personnel in the not so recent past, is it all because of the closure?
Rose: Of course, there was already a shortage of air traffic controllers throughout the country, which has nothing to do with the suspension of the government.
Kelly: Good.
Rose: The staffing table for several thousand dispatchers does not correspond to the fact that, according to the FAU and the union of dispatchers, it must be. Almost 11,000 certified controllers are forced to work during a stop, but they are not paid until it ends. During the last closure in 2018 and 2019, we saw how dispatchers caused patients in more than usual, the quantity, especially after this shutdown was drawn for a month, and this caused some serious delays at large airports on the east coast and, possibly, even played a key role in the termination of this closure. According to federal officials, this year there was a slight increase in the number of controllers who cause patients, but, as we saw, a large number are not required to have a great influence.
Kelly: Joel, I need to have time for a plane this week. I am sure that I am not alone in people who listen to you and think: wait, but should I do it at all? Is it safe to fly right now?
Rose: The FAU and the Ministry of Transport decisively say that their main priority is to maintain the security of the system. But if necessary, they will limit the number of ups and significantly reduce the number of aircraft in the air, and this leads to a delay. Here is the Minister of Transport Sean Duffy at yesterday's press conference in Newark.
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Sean Duffy: Is our airspace unsafe? No. If we calculate that there are problems in the airspace, we will turn it off. We will close him. We will linger.
Rose: This is what we saw yesterday and already see today.
Kelly: Another thing, Joel: we talked about large airports that, for the most part, serve large cities. What about the possible consequences of airport closing in rural areas? – Because something is happening there too.
Rose: Yes, there is a federal program that subsidizes flights to rural airports. This is called the Essential Air Service program. Throughout the country there are about 170 small settlements, which probably would not have a commercial air message without it, including more than 60 in Alaska alone. The Trump administration states that if the quarantine continues, the program will end with the money this weekend. But, nevertheless, it is unclear what kind of direct effect we will see. At least one large air carrier, Alaska Airlines, claims to continue flights, even without this subsidy. And it is likely that the smaller regional airlines that carry out most of these flights will do the same, at least for some time. I also want to note that at the beginning of this year the White House proposed reducing this program by more than $ 300 million, despite the wide support of both parties in Congress.
Kelly: Thank you, Joel.
Rose: Please.
Kelly: Joel Rose from NPR.
(Sound card from Elmina's song “Marking My Time”)
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