Government shutdown disrupts flights, air traffic control : NPR

Travelers throughout the United States begin to feel the influence of the closure of the government, since the lack of air traffic control personnel violates flights throughout the country.

Twelve institutions of federal aviation administration (FAA) saw a lack of personnel on Monday, according to Evening advisory From an agency, followed by another half a dozen on Tuesday.

Transport Secretary Sean Duffy held Monday Press conference In one of them, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where he accused national delays of “small ticking on sick calls” by air traffic control workers.

Duffy said that the controllers are concerned about work without payment during a stop, some of which are considering second works, for example, a call to the patients to travel to Uber. And he warned that the malfunctions could worsen until the government was opening again.

“If we see that there are problems in the tower that affect the ability of controllers to effectively control the airspace, we will reduce the rate, and you will see more delays, or you will see the cancellation,” Duffy said. “I am ready to do this before we are ready to risk whose life is life in the air.”

In a statement divided with NPR, FAA says that “slows down traffic at some airports to ensure safe work” when there is a lack of staff. This directs travelers to His web site To influence real -time flights for each US airport.

Politicians on both sides of the passage accuse each other of closing and the follow -up. The government closed on October 1 after partisan disagreements, mainly Subsidies for healthcareThe Senate prevented the Senate to adopt a funding bill.

Airproofers He played a key role Having finished the last closure of the government, which extended for 35 days, from December 2018 to January 2019.

Only the FAA-described “small increase” on a vacation due to illness in two air traffic control institutions abandoning the main Airports of the east coast to chaos And an increase in pressure on the Trump administration, in order to ultimately conclude a transaction on expenses with Congress.

The long-standing shortage of the personnel of the controller is assumed by insufficient hiring, Extensive training periods and high waging indicators – He remained a problem In the years, since then. As events show on Monday, even a small number of sick calls can have a great influence.

What airports were affected?

The lack of staff continued on Tuesday, which led to the delays at airports in Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Houstonaccording to To FAAIN And also brief ground stop At Nashville International Airport.

Office of the Airport of the capital Nashville He said in a statement That this was notified by the FAA at 13:25 local time, that the incoming and outgoing flights at Nashville airport will be reduced, starting from 14:30 “from the shortage of air traffic controllers”. This delay in the Earth was a ground stop – the first related to turning off the government – from 18:30 to 20:00 local time.

This follows Monday malfunctions in airspace near the cities, including Phoenix, Denver, Chicago, Indianapolis and Washington, the District of Colombia

According to the FAA, the airports in Newarke and Denver saw delays in system of staff. Flights were postponed on average 53 minutes From Newark and 39 minutes From DenverAlthough some were detained closer to two hours.

Perhaps the biggest malfunctions were felt at Hollywood Berbank Airport near Los -Angeles, who saw The average delays in the Earth 2 1/2 hours. According to Gavin News Governor, Gavin News, on Monday he did not have an aircraft dispathers for more than five hours.

Newsoms accused President Trump in tweetWriting: “At the airport of Berbank today from 16:15 to 22:00 with zero air traffic from the closing of the government.”

Another object to combat aviation management, Southern California, Tracon, controlled operations remotely from San Diego during this period.

Berbank Airport did not respond to the NPR request about the comments. He said in On Monday evening tweet That his operations continued, and called on travelers to check with his airlines about potential failures.

What do air traffic controllers say?

At the press conferences of Duffy in Newark Nick Daniels, the President of the National Association of Airpower (NATCA), in particular, was given to politics when he urged to complete the closure.

“We need to lead to the closure of this shutdown so that the federal aviation department and devoted aviation security experts can postpone this distraction and fully concentrate on their vital work,” Daniels said.

NATCA, which represents more than 20,000 air traffic controllers, He says a lot Of its members, they already worked 10 hours a day, six days a week, and the stop installed them under further voltage by supporting the security service and suspension of support programs.

His web site has a notification warning his members that “participation in the work can lead to the removal of the federal service,” saying that such behavior is not only illegal, but also undermines Natca's trust. “

In the statement for NPR, NATCA said that almost 11,000 fully certified controllers remain at work, and for some of them it is normal to call patients any day.

But this also speaks of events on Monday emphasizes the fragility of the country's aviation system and “urgent need to speed up training and hiring.”

After the start of the second administration Trump Duffy insisted on major repairs Air traffic control systems of the country – parts of which are still relying on the disk Run Windows 95 – And priority Efforts in “overload” hiringField

On Monday, Duffy said that the closure prevents these efforts, now potentially in the future.

“This has a longer effect on our ability to make the soil in a shortage, which we have right now from the air traffic controller,” he said. “This has a great influence … on our system at a time when we try to reduce stress.”

How else can a stop affect air transportation?

Closing the government can also have sharp consequences for rural airports.

Duffy warned that the Essential Air Service (EAS), a federal program that subsidizes the commercial service in rural airports at about 170 US communities, can finish funding immediately on Sunday.

“Each state throughout the country will affect the inability to provide subsidies to airlines for servicing these communities,” Duffy said, adding that Alaska will be the most injured.

The White House suggested Reducing the programs of the program More than 50% at the beginning of this year, despite the fact that in Congress he has a long -standing bicopartican support in the Congress, as Duffy himself admitted on Monday.

Natasha Marquez, a representative of the regional airline, told the NPR in her statement that before the pandemia Covid-19, EAS supported more than 17,000 jobs in the United States and allowed hundreds of daily flights from airports with an average distance of 200 miles from the closest or major hub airport, which means that many travelers could feel the impact.

Alaska Airlines representative, which has six communities in Alaska, said NPR by e -mail that if the government remains outside of Sunday, ”we will be exempted from our obligations as an EAS supplier in these communities and [Department of Transportation] Most likely it will suspend compensation. ”

It is not immediately clear when passengers notice the change. Airlines usually strive to reimburse the government at the beginning of the month for flights of the previous month, according to Department of Transport.