WASHINGTON, D.C. – To prepare for the possibility of a budget sequestration on March 1, the FAA is making plans to reduce its expenditures by approximately $600 million for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2013.
In a statement released Friday, FAA officials said:
“Among the changes we are considering are furloughing the vast majority of our 47,000 employees for approximately one day per pay period; closing over 100 air traffic control facilities; eliminating the overnight shift at over 60 facilities; and reducing preventive maintenance and support for all air traffic control equipment. All of these changes will be finalized as to scope and details through collaborative discussions with our users and our unions. We will begin furloughs and start facility shut-downs in April.”
You can read more about this process in this letter from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.
The lists of affected facilities can be viewed here:
I looked throught he list of affected ATCT’s also. These are mostly low activity airports. Not sure where the original requirement for these was generated. Did the FAA create an ATCT on based on a traffic count criteria, or were they mandated by congressional request? In my view, the real culprits here are the members of congress. They should be managing all federal agencies and creating a balanced budget. That is their job. The FAA has their share of bureacracy which should be reviewed annually as a minimum. The VFR GA crowd doesn’t need much in the way of traffic control.
I looked thru the list for airports in my flying area of GA, SC, NC, FL and TN. Didn’t see a single tower that would make much of any difference. Most of them probably shouldn’t have towers anyway and are grossley underused. What? Can’t take a 2.5% reduction? Ridiculous. How about the overstaffing in the Regional and Washington headquarters with their high salaries? Good riddance.
This administration dosent “GET IT”. More asinine solutions for yet another manufactured “crisis”. This cant go on.
I don’t get it. In industry we would roll back wages 10% and be done with it; in fact, millions of companies in the country have had to do just that. Those of us who weren’t permanently laid off were glad to take the 10% cut. I know the last time the FAA furloughed folks they all got back wages when they came back to work; in other words, a nice taxpayer funded vacations. I am sure their 47,000 employees will expect more of the same this time. Sheesh.