TheFly

Air Travel Delays Easing - WSJ.com


Commercial air traffic began returning to normal across the U.S. Sunday as the Federal Aviation Administration ended the furloughs of air-traffic controllers that had led to thousands of flight delays and cancellations over the previous week.

On Sunday, there were 3,718 delayed flights and 77 cancellations as of early evening, less than the first day of furloughs the previous Sunday, and below the 30-day average, according to airline data tracker FlightStats. Delays on Saturday also returned to pre-furlough levels, according to FlightStats.

More on FAA Furloughs

Air-Traffic Controllers Sent Back to Work
Air Delays Get Swift Political Response
Seib & Wessel: Fixing the Sequester Flight Delays
The FAA said it would return to regular staffing levels after the House cleared a bill on Friday giving the Department of Transportation more flexibility in applying budget cuts mandated under the so-called sequester. The legislation had passed the Senate on Thursday.

President Barack Obama has yet to sign the bill into law, a White House official said Sunday. An error in the Senate version required congressional clerks to redraft the documents, which will be sent to Mr. Obama to sign on Tuesday, said congressional officials.

The across-the-board cuts prompted the FAA to require employees, starting on April 21, to take one unpaid day off every two weeks, effectively cutting the FAA's workforce of air-traffic controllers by 10% each day.

The measure allows the FAA to redirect as much as $253 million from its budget to shore up staffing and operations. The agency had said the furloughs to its roughly 30,000 air-traffic employees, half of whom are controllers, would save $162 million, and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told Congress in February that the agency would save $45 million to $50 million by eliminating funding for 170 contract towers.

The public outcry over the flight delays that followed prompted lawmakers from both parties to join in giving budget flexibility to the FAA.

United Continental Holdings Inc., UAL +2.67% the largest U.S. airline by traffic, estimated about 20,000 of its customers were affected by delays directly attributable to the FAA staffing shortages, and 48 flights a day were canceled on average. The company, including its commuter affiliates, carries between 300,000 and 400,000 fliers a day and operates about 5,800 flights.

USMCFLYR

Interesting insight to the he said/she said of each side............

Sequester politics: Claims about the FAA furloughs - The Washington Post

FDXLAG

"The FAA’s work force is heavily unionized, and the furloughs have been ordered without trying to make allowances for the level of traffic in particular airports. The FAA argues that it did not want to be in the position of picking “winners and losers,” either among airports or union members."

In other words making management decisions is not the job of government managers.

JamesNoBrakes

Well, by furloughing everyone, the national airspace system and industry work, just at a slower pace. Don't furlough one group and shift it to all the others or certain ones which would mean increased furlough hours/days, and things could be drastically different. Suspend an airline's certificate just because the required inspections can't be done? Ground aircraft because they can't be inspected? Shut down an airport because something can't be fixed? Shut down approaches and airways because a navaid is out of service? I don't think any of those would be acceptable. The public thinks the ATC controllers are the only ones that work for the FAA.

FlyInFashion

I wonder if the lines will be shorter at the airport. I heard it was awful the other day.