Furloughs cause delays at many major U.S. airports

This past Sunday marked the beginning of furloughs at U.S. airports. The furloughs will reduce staff by around 10% across the country. The FAA is warning that some airports may see delays of up to 3 1/2 hours due to these budget cuts. Monday already saw delays across the country, with New York’s La Guardia and JFK airports reporting delays of more than an hour.

The FAA has been mandated to furlough all of its 47,000 employees through the end of September, in order to help with the $637 million the agency must cut from its annual budget. Nearly 15,000 of those employees are air traffic controllers. With nearly 10% of the controllers scheduled to be off daily, the FAA has no choice but to space planes farther apart in order to safely manage air traffic. Transportation officials have questioned the need to furlough so many controllers, in contrast to the Transportation Security Administration avoiding furloughs.

If Monday’s pattern persists, fliers can expect delays at many of the major airports. The airlines are doing their best to adjust to these conditions in order to keep operations running safely and efficiently, but there is only so much they can do to limit the delays. It is difficult to judge the full impact of these furloughs, as there are other contributing factors for some delays, in particular the recent string of bad weather in some parts of the country. With that being said, it is safe to say that these cuts will have a profound effect on fliers from now until the end of September.

Government Fines American Airlines $900,000 for Tarmac Delays

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) fined American Airlines a total of $900,000- $650,000 of which must be paid in the next 30 days to the FAA and up to $250,000 can be credited for refunds, vouchers, and frequent flyer mile awards provided to the passengers on the 15 American Eagle flights that were excessively delayed (in violation of the three hour rule).

The three hour delay rule (namely the steep fines that accompany it- as much as $27,500 per passenger) may be even more disruptive to even more travelers than sitting uncomfortably on the tarmac for 10 hours. Airlines are far more likely to cancel the flight all together if there is concern for being delayed. Better to avoid a huge fine and put passengers out than have to deal with disgruntled passengers AND a massive fine.

According to the Associated Press, "between May 2010 and April 2011, the first 12 months after the time limit was in effect, airlines reported 20 tarmac delays of more than three hours, none of which was more than four hours long. In contrast, during the 12 months before the rule took effect, airlines had 693 tarmac delays of more than three hours, and 105 of the delays were longer than four hours." These number seem great, though they do not reflect the much higher percentage of flights that are canceled as a result (many of which might not have actually experienced any tarmac delays at all)- better safe than sorry.

More on this from AP: http://news.yahoo.com/airline-fine-may-send-flight-cancellations-soaring-222545569.html

FAA's New $2.1 Billion Air Traffic System Held Back by Software Problems

The article from the Associated Press is pretty lengthy, so here are a few key paragraphs:

"FAA officials have predicted the agency's NextGen modernization program will be as revolutionary for civil aviation as was the advent of radar six decades ago. It's actually a collection of new programs aimed at moving planes faster and more efficiently that will markedly change almost every major aspect of today's air traffic system. Those changes are considered critical to enabling the system to absorb substantial predicted increases in air traffic without becoming paralyzed by congestion."

"The troubled $2.1 billion software program is the main tool air traffic controllers will use to identify and track aircraft, except when planes are immediately approaching and departing airports. It was supposed to have been completed by the end of last year, but the FAA now doesn't expect to be finished until 2014, at a cost overrun of $330 million, Scovel said."

"Some of ERAM's problems have previously been made public, including glitches that incorrectly identify planes and interfere with the ability of controllers to pass along responsibility for tracking a plane from one control center to another."

"But the problem may be more extensive than the FAA has previously acknowledged. Scovel said his office has found similar problems in another critical FAA computer system that shares the same aircraft tracking software. That system is used by controllers to track planes as they approach and depart airports."

'"ERAM's persistent problems have raised concerns about the overall design of the system," he said in his testimony.'

"The FAA has focused much of its initial NextGen efforts on improving the flow of air traffic at congested airports in 21 major metropolitan areas. However, the agency has been slow in developing the flight procedures that will allow airlines to save fuel and time by flying shorter, more direct routes, Scovel said. The FAA did a study that identified ways to streamline the process for deploying new procedures, but agency officials estimate it would take five years just to put the streamlining initiatives in place, he said."

By Joan Lowy of the Associated Press: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44785250/ns/travel-news/

Update on Controversial FAA Bill

Here are a few interesting articles about the FAA reauthorization bill that is being hotly debated by the U.S. Congress- and a link that should interest anyone who has thought about exploring different parts of the world but hasn't had the means to do so.


- By Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

Congress will consider this week whether to extend the Federal Aviation Administration until Jan. 31 to give lawmakers more breathing room to settle long-simmering disputes about the agency.

The agency, which has staggered along under 21 temporary extensions since 2007, faces a potential shutdown Friday because of the legislative impasse.

But Rep. John Mica, the chairman of the House transportation committee, is sponsoring legislation that would allow nearly five months for haggling over labor rules, subsidies for rural airports and the number of flights at Reagan National Airport. The goal is for a policy that would last as long as four years.

"I'm willing to compromise," Mica says. "But having a 23rd extension would be tough."

His latest proposal posted on the House Rules Committee website would keep most policies the same. It also authorizes $150 million in subsidies for rural airports, which remains a point of contention between the House and Senate.

Senate Democrats, including Mica's counterpart, Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, have defended the program as important to remote communities. Rockefeller had urged Mica to offer a several-month extension so lawmakers could iron out the disputes.

The congressional wrangling hasn't been obvious to airline passengers because air-traffic controllers remained on the job during the shutdown. But a partial shutdown from July 23 through Aug. 5 furloughed 4,000 FAA workers and shuttered 200 construction projects.

Passengers might not have noticed FAA's inability to collect taxes during the shutdown because most airlines kept prices as if the taxes remained.

Congress reinstated the taxes retroactively after the shutdown, so people who bought tickets before July 23 and flew during the shutdown couldn't get refunds. But the Internal Revenue Service also decided not to collect taxes for tickets sold during the shutdown, which lawmakers said was about $400 million.

"I was really ticked," says Kate Hanni, executive director of the passenger-advocacy group FlyersRights.org. "The airlines made bank. The IRS didn't collect the money. The airlines didn't make refunds."

Link to original post: http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/09/mica-willing-to-compromise-on-faa-extension/546922/1

More about this topic: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/10/140355546/deal-reached-to-avert-faa-shutdown?ft=1&f=1001

For a surprising look at rural airport subsidies: http://news.yahoo.com/govt-pays-empty-flights-rural-airports-212212863.html


-On a different note-
Anyone interested in traveling to unique spots around the world for free (hold it- while working as a volunteer) check out this article: http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/09/mica-willing-to-compromise-on-faa-extension/546922/1