The FAA first shared that it was going to require an across-the-board flight cut at 40 major airports, that struck me as a strange approach to air traffic controllers calling out sick during the government shutdown.
There have been different facilities short-staffed on different days (although some, already understaffed to begin with, have had more frequent issues than others). Many of these 40 aren’t among those. (Fewer flights generally does help with workload at enroute centers.)
Today, in the first day of cuts (4%), we haven’t seen improvement. My own flight from Chicago to Austin was delayed due to air traffic control staff shortages in Austin today.
We know that air traffic controllers not showing up to work quickly brought an end to the government shutdown in 2019. And after Republicans took losses in Tuesday’s elections, and polling suggesting they’re being blamed in the shutdown (as well as being insufficiently focused on affordability issues that they campaigned on last year), they likely want to bring the shutdown to an end without capitulating to opposition demands.
On the other hand, the Department of Transportation says that the decision to reduce flights is data-driven. That data hasn’t been shared with the public. And The Air Current reports that is hasn’t been shared with airlines, either. Or with Members of Congress.
And, they report, several C-level executives at U.S. airlines believe that the decision to snarl commercial airline travel is political. (This would also explain the primary focus on commercial flights with only the option to reduce private flight traffic.)
One senior airline official speaking to TAC described the interim justification laid out in the 10-page order as a “potemkin village.” …
Another senior C-level executive at a different carrier told TAC they did feel the cuts were “of course” politically motivated and said: “We are on high alert for flight operations…but nothing has risen up to me that we have a real issue here.” A third C-level executive said “Oh god yes” when asked if the reductions were politically motivated.
Not every executive was so forthright, with one acknowledging to The Air Current that it would be “counterproductive” to acknowledge the role that politics was playing here “even privately.”
As JoeSentMe.com told subscribers last night, the idea of there being an aviation issue and the idea of Duffy playing to his audience of one are NOT mutually exclusive. Or as Joe wrote: “We have a genuine crisis on our hands. And we have a federal administration that is more interested in performative government than doing what is best for travelers, airlines or federal travel employees.”
Two things can be true at once. Honest. And if this drags on, 10% cuts, as Gary so often likes to say in another context, will be “table stakes.”
Data? We ain’t got no data! We don’t need no data! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ data!
Gary, I’m truly surprised that you’re truly surprised by this revelation. The entire modus operandi of this administration is threats, extortion, and the deliberate infliction of pain and suffering. Facts, data, and the law be damned. Expect Dear Leader to stubbornly dig in even deeper following the drubbing election results of Tuesday. If @1990 chimes in, his comments will be a bit more eloquent than my quickie reply.
I’m shocked! Shocked to hear Duffy and Trumpy are using the power of the government to extract concessions from the other party and lying about it!
“If @1990 chimes in, his comments will be a bit more eloquent than my quickie reply.” I am sure when he’s done cleaning the basement of his mom’s house he lives in (mom got tired of the stench), he will respond. Or, is he pretending to be on a trip? Al Bundy of the left.
Leave it to airline executives to state the obvious. Facts and data are the enemy of this administration.
whaaaat? the most transparent president the world, nay the solar system, has ever seen, is not being totally open and transparent?? nooooo.
it’s simple folks, the felon wants to screw the public over. all to keep his name hidden in the files.
I’m surprised that the airline executives would speak up. They all need something from the Fed and I expected them to toe the government line.
YMMV’s blog had a brilliant solution to the problem of too many planes: ban all private planes from flying until the crisis is ended.