US airport and air traffic control (ATC) officials fear that delays in agreeing federal budgets will cause problems for the smooth operation of security and ATC functions later this year.
Security snarls at US airports will get worse before they go back to bad, fear major operators. And, in a change from their usual upbeat "all will be well" stance, federal security officials agree. New federal rules on travel from overseas will likely combine with a budget crisis in Congress to lengthen passenger lines and queues as security screeners are laid off.
While the new rules on visitors face a year-end deadline for implementation, the budget crunch will be felt as early as October. House and Senate negotiators concede that they will not be able to reconcile their differences over spending bills for the Transportation and Homeland Security departments before the new US fiscal year begins on 1 October. This forces the agencies to operate on short-term, limited-authority budgets that restrict major contracting and - in the case of the FAA - limit operations and compel layoffs.
"Anybody that's not in the everyday operation of the airspace will not be working," FAA associate administrator for airports, Woodie Woodward, told the 1,900 delegates at the annual Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) meeting in Tampa. "It is the agency's plan to furlough anyone who is not essential to the safety and security of the operations of the national airspace system." While budget battles often lead to dire threats, this year looks different. "We're not bluffing," says Woodward.
At the very least, the situation prevents "any kind of rational, longer-term planning," says ACI-NA's first vice-chairman, Patrick Graham of the Savannah, Georgia airport. Under the continuing resolutions that would allow the agencies to operate on a month-by-month basis while waiting for their annual budget, agencies cannot make major purchases or airports gain full access to the bond markets, since airport improvement grants are not covered by the resolutions.
For airport security the situation is worse. Without their own separate but also disputed budget, security officials are hampered, but with the budget under consideration, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will not have enough money to maintain current staff levels and will have to furlough as many as 3,000 full-time screeners in addition to the 6,000 laid off this summer. TSA deputy assistant administrator James Schear said budget levels under consideration would force the layoffs, which would be only partially balanced by hiring of part-time screeners. He and other TSA officials concede that the effects on airports could be serious.
Behind the congressional impasse is a minor but potentially precedent-setting measure to allow the hiring of private-sector personnel for 69 regional control towers. Fearing large-scale privatisation, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union launched a massive lobbying campaign to stall the bill.
House aviation subcommittee chairman John Mica said that he did "not intend to budge" on this provision. "We ensured that 94% of controllers would have their jobs protected. The bill doesn't privatise a thing," he says. The $58 billion bill would fund the Department of Transportation and FAA from October to the end of the 2006 fiscal year.
DAVID FIELD TAMPA
Source: Airline Business
