Lack of Controllers Could Raise Flight Dangers, Senator Says
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With budget cutbacks and air traffic controllers retiring in higher numbers, New York area airport towers are understaffed by 30% and will face increased flight delays and safety problems unless Congress and the Bush administration take drastic steps to boost funding, Senator Schumer said.
The Senate Appropriations Committee should triple the Federal Aviation Administration’s budget for the fiscal 2008 budget by adding $47.7 million for new controllers, and the FAA should restore a 2006 cutback in recruiting outlays, the New York Democrat said yesterday.
Mr. Schumer said an FAA-ordered cutback in overtime pay for controllers substituting for absent co-workers has encouraged a spike in retirements at the same time that trainee recruiting is affected by a reduction in entry-level salaries.
An original FAA request for $18.2 million for recruitment was recently pared to $15.9 million, enough for only 114 new controllers nationwide, Mr. Schumer said at a news conference.
He said all three major New York airports are operating with fewer controllers than needed — 27 at LaGuardia and 30 at John F. Kennedy International, instead of 36 at each, and 29 at Newark Liberty International, instead of 40. Teterboro, in New Jersey, has 13, half its authorized number, and the New York Terminal Radar Approach (TRACON), in Westbury, has 187 of 270.
Figures show 40 more eligible to retire at TRACON, six at Newark-Liberty, five at LaGuardia and one at JFK in 2007, Mr. Schumer said.
Among 31 major American airports, New York’s three major airports ranked poorly in on-time arrivals and departures in December 2006, the last month for which figures were available from the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Mr. Schumer said.
Among arrivals, Newark ranked 30th, JFK was 29th and LaGuardia was 28th. In departures, JFK also ranked 29th, Newark was 27th and LaGuardia was 15th.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the retirements in part reflected a surfeit of controllers after air traffic declined, in some areas as much as 40%, after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Current levels were negotiated in a union contract implemented last year, she said.
The agency also hired 1,100 new trainees last year and expects to hire 1,300 this year and a total of about 12,000 over the next decade, Ms. Brown said.
“We have 2,000 people waiting to be hired,” she said. “We are having no trouble recruiting.”
