As the federal government shutdown reached its damp squib of a conclusion, air traffic controllers missed their second full paycheck on Tuesday. The Federal Aviation Administration mandated a reduction in flights last week to reduce the workload on severely understaffed air traffic control facilities amid a soaring absentee rate. Many unpaid controllers opted to take a second job to cover their bills. As a result, the FAA-mandated flight cuts will remain in place until it’s deemed safe to lift the order, not when the shutdown officially ends.
The cuts began with a 4% flight reduction across 40 major airports last Friday and are still slated to hit 10% this Friday. Airlines scrambled to cancel services and accommodate their passengers through the chaos. According to CBS News, over 2.100 flights were cancelled on Monday. These issues will persist beyond the shutdown because the FAA has fewer controllers than it initially had. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy claims that the shutdown sparked an uptick in retirements. According to the Hill, he stated, “I used to have about four controllers retire a day before the shutdown. I’m now up to 15 to 20 a day are retiring.” The FAA can’t just hire anyone off the street to replace its recent retirees. The agency needs to assess the level of air traffic it can handle, and President Trump certainly isn’t helping matters by threatening people to go back to work.
FAA bans private jets from a dozen major airports
As the reductions ramp up, the FAA has also prohibited business aviation at a dozen major airports. According to CNBC, the list of airports includes Chicago O’Hare, Dallas Fort Worth, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Los Angeles International, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty. While many of these cities have smaller alternative airports for private jets, why wasn’t this ban put in place sooner? When commercial airlines are haphazardly cancelling thousands of flights to accommodate the lack of ATC capacity, a private jet carrying a couple of people could land at the busiest airport in the world. Duffy noted that 18 of Atlanta’s 22 controllers called out on Saturday. No one should ever be allowed to land there in a private jet in those conditions.
With the current state of the economy, it’s an incredibly awful time to miss back-to-back paychecks. A survey conducted by PNC Bank earlier this year found that 77% of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck. I’ll never blame the controllers for choosing not to work unpaid. The blame clearly lies at the feet of the Trump administration for allowing this situation to happen from the lackluster state of air traffic control beforehand to forcing the shutdown to occur at all.
