FAA plans to furlough thousands of air traffic controllers and will purposely delay thousands of flights every day. If the FAA projections are accurate, this unnecessary action will disrupt air travel for millions of Americans, cost jobs and threatens to ground the U.S. economy. It doesn’t have to be that way.
The FAA has the ability to prevent this by making other cost cuts, and declaring air traffic controllers “essential employees.”
Unlike the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Customs and other agencies, FAA has not acted to minimize potential impacts. For months airlines have been asking for sequestration impact details, but still have no specifics or explanation of methodology except that the FAA expects that a 5 percent sequestration
cut will equal 30-40 percent capacity reductions at certain airports. That math simply doesn’t work.
The Consumer Travel Alliance together with the entire aviation industry is committed to doing everything in our power to stop the FAA imposed delays.
We encourage you to join the fight and send a letter to President Obama, Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary LaHood, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Huerta, and your members of Congress that the Administration should act to end this now through the “DontGroundAmerica.com” campaign and tell them that this plan does not fly. Please encourage your family and friends to do the same.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
