Listen to this articleThe basics:
- FAA, USDOT plan 10% flight reduction at 40 major airports
- Newark Liberty, Teterboro, JFK, Philadelphia among those affected
- Move aims to ease staffing pressures amid ongoing shutdown
- United, other airlines to adjust schedules but maintain safety
As the federal government shutdown continues, the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation are instituting a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 major airports. The list will reportedly include Newark Liberty International Airport and Teterboro Airport here in Jersey, as well as nearby Philadelphia International, John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia airports.
Announced Nov. 5 by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the drop is expected to take effect as soon as the next 24 hours.
Duffy noted the already ongoing air traffic controller shortage. The secretary has been working to address that issue through a number of initiatives, which NJBIZ reported on, since taking the helm at DOT. He said those efforts had helped to stabilize the situation, but the continuing shutdown has impacted the ability to maintain current staffing levels and workers don’t receive paychecks.
A month without pay
“Our air traffic controllers and a lot of those who work at DOT but throughout government – they haven’t received paychecks. And many of these employees, they’re the head of household,” Duffy said. “They have their spouse at home. They have a child or two or three – and when they lose income, they are confronted with real-world difficulties in how they pay their bills.
“And so, for air traffic controllers, they received a partial payment in early October. The second payment – they got a big fat zero, no paycheck at all,” Duffy continued. “Tomorrow, they get a pay stub email on what their next paycheck is going to be. And when that pay stub comes out, that is also going to be zero. So, they will have gone a month without any pay.
“What we’re finding is that our air traffic controllers, because of the financial pressures at home, are taking side jobs. They need to put food on the table, gas in the car, pay their bills. By the way, I do not want them to take side jobs. I want them to show up for work. We have asked them to show up for work – but I’m not naïve to understand that they’re trying to figure out how they meet their daily obligations.
“And because of that, we have seen staffing pressures throughout our airspace.”
That, Duffy says, has led to more delays and cancellations – as well as a balancing act to maintain safety standards while not upending travel.
The toolbox
“We’re noticing that there’s additional pressure that’s building in the system. And again, our priority is to make sure that you’re safe,” Duffy explained. He noted that the agency is also taking measures to reduce the risk profile in the national airspace.
Making progress
In September, the FAA announced hitting its hiring goals for 2025 for air traffic controllers. “Our work is just getting started,” said USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy, at the time. Read more here.
“We are working with airlines. They’re going to work with passengers. But in the end, our sole role is to make sure that we keep this airspace as safe as possible. The [FAA] Administrator [Bryan Bedford] is going to talk about all of the tools we’re going to deploy. One of them, though, is going to be that there is going to be a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations.”
While the National Airspace as a whole remains safe, Bedford explained that while working through the data, his team has seen controller fatigue in specific markets.
“Granularly, we are seeing pressures build in a way that if we allow it to go unchecked – will allow us to continue to tell the public that we operate the safest airline system in the world,” said Bedford. “We’re not going to react to that – we intend to be proactive.
“We recognize that the controllers have been working fastidiously for the last five weeks with this huge burden over their head of lack of compensation. And we are starting to see some evidence that fatigue is building in the system in ways that we feel we need to work toward relieving some of that pressure.
“As the Secretary said, we’ve identified 40 high-traffic environment markets. We have decided that a 10% reduction in scheduled capacity would be appropriate to, again, continue to take the pressure off of our controllers. And as we continue to see staffing triggers, there will be additional measures that will be taken in those specific markets.”
Mark your calendar
Duffy and Bedford applauded the work of the controllers who have continued to show up for work.
They also assured travelers that it is absolutely safe to fly in the American skies.
What exactly this reduction will look like on the ground remains fluid as this situation plays out.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby wrote a letter to employees Nov. 5.
No matter what environment we’re operating in, we will not compromise on safety.
– Scott Kirby, United Airlines CEO
“Earlier today, the FAA and DOT directed every airline to reduce their schedules during the government shutdown, across 40 domestic airports,” Kirby wrote. “The FAA’s goal is to relieve pressure on the aviation system so that we can all continue to operate safely. That is the FAA’s highest priority, and ours as well. No matter what environment we’re operating in, we will not compromise on safety.
“These reductions will start on Friday, Nov. 7, and we will continue to make rolling updates to our schedule as the government shutdown continues so we can give our customers several days’ advance notice and to minimize disruption for them and for all of you.”
Kirby stressed that this schedule reduction will not impact United’s long-haul international flying and hub-to-hub flying.
“That’s important to maintain the integrity of our network, give impacted customers as many options as possible to resume their trip, and sustain our crew pairing systems,” said Kirby. “Instead, we will focus our schedule reductions on regional flying and domestic mainline flights that do not travel between our hubs.”
Still flying
United will use its app, website and push notifications to alert customers of any flight changes – and offer rebooking options.
“We want to provide them with as much information as we can and in a way that’s simple and easy to understand,” said Kirby. “And importantly, any customer traveling during this period is eligible for a refund if they do not wish to fly – even if their flight isn’t impacted. That includes non-refundable tickets and those customers with basic economy tickets.”
Kirby says that even with the reductions, United and its United Express partners will still offer about 4,000 flights per day.
“Finally, thank you for going above and beyond during this government shutdown to take care of our customers and one another,” Kirby told his team. “Your professionalism and care will be more important than ever in the days ahead.”
Please stay with NJBIZ for the very latest on this developing situation.
