The Air Traffic Control Furlough: What Happened and What It Means to You
Frequent flyers can rejoice: the air traffic controller furlough, which caused a sudden increase in flight delays and left thousands stranded and upset across the country, is over. What exactly happened and why? Read on to understand.
What the heck is a furlough and sequester?
On April 21, the Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began to furlough, commonly referred to as reduce or cut back, the work schedules of almost all of its 47,000 employees by one day every two weeks.
This reduction of hours included 15,000 air traffic controllers, as well as another 32,000 air traffic supervisors, managers, technicians, and other FAA employees who monitor our nation's 21 regional air traffic control towers and radar facilities.
The reason: The federal budget sequester, which took effect in March. The FAA and many other government agencies are being forced to cut their budgets by 10 percent in order to meet the $85 million in cuts required by Congress.
That FAA furlough added up to about a 10 percent cut in hours and pay. In addition to the FAA furloughs, the sequester also called for the closing of 149 air traffic control towers at regional airports. As of this issue date, the fate of the air traffic controllers at small airports is still up in the air.
Delays cost the airline industry dearly
Some of the busiest airports in the country experienced the most flight delays, including Los Angeles International, New York's John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia, New Jersey's Newark Liberty International, Chicago O'Hare International, and Florida's Orlando International.
According to FlightStats, a website that monitors airline flight delays and cancellations, on April 21, the first day of the furloughs, the number of flight delays was around 4,800. The next Monday, April 22 €" a heavy travel day €" flight delays jumped up to more than 7,000. The website also found that on April 22, the average on-time rating for the nation's airlines dropped to 73 percent, compared with 82 percent the previous Monday.
The airline industry lost a lot of money as a result of the delays. Airlines for America, a trade group for the nation's largest airlines, estimates that the industry lost about $6 million in revenue for every day of delays. Had the furloughs continued, it was estimated that 6,500 flights a day might have been affected €" twice the average number of flights affected under normal operations.
The people spoke and Congress listened
The fervor and backlash among citizens regarding the furlough-caused flight delays was echoed by the U.S. Senate, who€"by dark of night €" unanimously passed a bill to put the furloughed air traffic controllers back to work.
On April 29, less than 10 days after it began, Congress passed legislation cancelling the air traffic controller furlough, and allowing the FAA to use leftover money in its budget to cover the salaries of air traffic controllers and any other staff it needs €" a so-called sequester without furloughs. In addition to staffing air traffic controllers, the new bill should prevent small airport towers around the country from closing, as was the intent outlined in letters to the DOT from numerous senators and congressmen. That part of the bill is currently still under review by the Department of Transportation.
Back to normal
By Sunday April 28, flights operations were, for the most part, back to normal. The average on-time rating for the nation's airlines rose back to 84 percent, with a total of about 4,800 flight delays across the country, according to FlightStats.
Nicholas E. Calio, president of Airlines for America, called the legislation that ended the commercial airport furloughs a "bipartisan, common-sense approach to restore efficiency to the nation's skies and put air traffic controllers back where they belong, in the tower."
What the heck is a furlough and sequester?
On April 21, the Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began to furlough, commonly referred to as reduce or cut back, the work schedules of almost all of its 47,000 employees by one day every two weeks.
This reduction of hours included 15,000 air traffic controllers, as well as another 32,000 air traffic supervisors, managers, technicians, and other FAA employees who monitor our nation's 21 regional air traffic control towers and radar facilities.
The reason: The federal budget sequester, which took effect in March. The FAA and many other government agencies are being forced to cut their budgets by 10 percent in order to meet the $85 million in cuts required by Congress.
That FAA furlough added up to about a 10 percent cut in hours and pay. In addition to the FAA furloughs, the sequester also called for the closing of 149 air traffic control towers at regional airports. As of this issue date, the fate of the air traffic controllers at small airports is still up in the air.
Delays cost the airline industry dearly
Some of the busiest airports in the country experienced the most flight delays, including Los Angeles International, New York's John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia, New Jersey's Newark Liberty International, Chicago O'Hare International, and Florida's Orlando International.
According to FlightStats, a website that monitors airline flight delays and cancellations, on April 21, the first day of the furloughs, the number of flight delays was around 4,800. The next Monday, April 22 €" a heavy travel day €" flight delays jumped up to more than 7,000. The website also found that on April 22, the average on-time rating for the nation's airlines dropped to 73 percent, compared with 82 percent the previous Monday.
The airline industry lost a lot of money as a result of the delays. Airlines for America, a trade group for the nation's largest airlines, estimates that the industry lost about $6 million in revenue for every day of delays. Had the furloughs continued, it was estimated that 6,500 flights a day might have been affected €" twice the average number of flights affected under normal operations.
The people spoke and Congress listened
The fervor and backlash among citizens regarding the furlough-caused flight delays was echoed by the U.S. Senate, who€"by dark of night €" unanimously passed a bill to put the furloughed air traffic controllers back to work.
On April 29, less than 10 days after it began, Congress passed legislation cancelling the air traffic controller furlough, and allowing the FAA to use leftover money in its budget to cover the salaries of air traffic controllers and any other staff it needs €" a so-called sequester without furloughs. In addition to staffing air traffic controllers, the new bill should prevent small airport towers around the country from closing, as was the intent outlined in letters to the DOT from numerous senators and congressmen. That part of the bill is currently still under review by the Department of Transportation.
Back to normal
By Sunday April 28, flights operations were, for the most part, back to normal. The average on-time rating for the nation's airlines rose back to 84 percent, with a total of about 4,800 flight delays across the country, according to FlightStats.
Nicholas E. Calio, president of Airlines for America, called the legislation that ended the commercial airport furloughs a "bipartisan, common-sense approach to restore efficiency to the nation's skies and put air traffic controllers back where they belong, in the tower."