By JOAN LOWY
Associated Press
Posted: Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013
WASHINGTON
- The government has no choice but to furlough air traffic
controllers in the event of automatic spending cuts, raising the specter
of widespread flight delays and runway closures, the Federal Aviation
Administration chief told skeptical Republicans Wednesday.
FAA
Administrator Michael Huerta told members of the House Transportation
and Infrastructure Committee that one of two control towers at Chicago's
O'Hare international Airport might have to be closed because there will
not be enough controllers to meet minimum staffing levels. If that
happens, Huerta said, the airport's north runway would be shut down,
which would have a ripple effect around the country.
The spending
cuts are scheduled to go into effect on Friday, but furloughs of air
traffic controllers won't kick in until April because the FAA is
required by law to give its employees advance notice. That will delay
most of the impact of the spending cuts on air travel for at least a
month.
The FAA is looking for ways to minimize the impact of the
controller furloughs on travelers, he said. But Heurta added that the
agency has little flexibility because it's required to apply the
spending cuts evenly to each part of its budget, including the portions
that pay for air traffic controllers, safety inspectors, and the
technicians who maintain navigation beacons and other critical
navigation equipment.
GOP lawmakers told Huerta the FAA ought to
be able to find a way to accommodate cuts of about $600 million out of
an annual budget of about $16 billion between now and the end of
September. In response to a question from Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., Huerta
acknowledged that the budget cuts would return the agency to its 2008
spending levels.
"We're not going back that far, the sky isn't
falling," Graves said. "We're not going to have any meteors hit because
of sequestration."
But Huerta said about 85 percent of the
agency's 47,000 people work "in the field," including 15,000 air traffic
controllers. They're going to take the brunt of the cuts, he said,
because the agency has little flexibility to cut contracts with the
exception of contracts for the operation of control towers at small
airports.
That didn't satisfy some lawmakers.
"This is the
time to sharpen your pencil," Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the
committee, told Huerta. "We believe you have the flexibility within
those lines of business to move money."
Huerta has already
notified the agency's employees that they should be prepared to be
furloughed one or two days per bi-weekly pay period between April and
September. The FAA is also planning to eliminate midnight shifts for air
traffic controllers at 60 airport towers, close over 100 control towers
at smaller airports and reduce preventative maintenance of equipment.
Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood has predicted that flights to cities like New
York, Chicago and San Francisco could experience delays of up to 90
minutes during peak hours because fewer controllers will be on duty.
A
report released Wednesday by the National Air Traffic Controllers
Association estimated that furloughs will leave too few controllers to
handle planes at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport, forcing the
closure of one of its three runways.
Instead of 126 landings per
hour, there would be only 96 landings, the report said. Hartsfield
handles more passengers than any other airport in the world. Houston's
Intercontinental and Chicago's O'Hare airports may also have to close
runways, it said.
"What Congress and everybody needs to
understand is that the world's busiest airport runs like a Swiss watch,"
said Victor Santore, the union's Southern regional vice president. "If
you slow down the arrival rate, the national airspace system will most
certainly suffer. It takes hours to recover at Hartsfield."
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