David Field / Washington
The prospect of the busiest travel season since 1990 looks like turning into a crucial test of the ability of US carriers, with their reduced resources and pared-back staffing levels, and of the nation’s straining airports and air traffic system, to cope. The test comes as the FAA, already beset by a high-profile labour stand-off with its traffic controllers, gears up for the gruelling and highly visible legislative gauntlet that begins later this year as it seeks a basic rewrite of its mandate and funding formula.
Among the critics warning of a season of discontent is key member of Congress, House Aviation Subcommittee chairman John Mica, who says the airlines are not prepared for “baggage meltdown this summer”. FAA air traffic controllers also insist that their warnings of a system stressed by a flood of retirements are sincere.
Elsewhere, airports authorities say they are concerned that security queues will reach gridlock as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) scrambles to devolve its screener hiring to the local level in a last-minute attempt to avoid the long lines at key airports.
Mica, usually sympathetic to the financial woes of airlines, blames the carriers for cutting staff. The latest Bureau of Transportation Statistics report shows that airline employment in February, at 404,000, was down almost 6% year-on-year, much of it through cuts in frontline workers. Mica is critical of the TSA for its delays in funding automated bag screening systems and its personnel problems, including “an astounding staff turnover of 24%” for the past year.
To deal with the problem of too few TSA screeners at key airports – such as a 25% vacancy rate at California’s Oakland airport, a low-fares hub – the agency said it would let local security officials take over some hiring instead of managing it centrally. Airport officials, however, plead for more local control over security staffing. Greg Principato, head of the Airports Council International-North America says: “There does not yet appear to be sufficient flexibility locally to tackle problems that are inherently local in nature. TSA has made some progress in this area, but we still have a long way to go.”
Bob Poole, a persistent TSA critic at the Reason Foundation, says the phase-in of local hiring is too small a step and probably comes too late for this summer. And FAA administrator Marion Blakey warns that increased thunderstorm activity this spring may be a sign of more weather-related delays this summer despite steps the agency has taken to reduce air traffic bottlenecks.
FAA officials pin their hopes for congestion relief on new infrastructure. Chief among this is Atlanta’s new fifth runway, which went into service in late May after five years of work, at a price tag of $1.3 billion. The 2,750m (9,000ft)-long runway could reduce delays at Delta-dominated Hartsfield Jackson by as much as 30% while easing congestion nationally. Almost 11% of all US flyers pass through the airport daily. Some 40% of Delta’s passengers use the airport daily, but about 25% of all the airport’s flights are late.
When navigation aids are installed next year, Hartsfield will be the fourth US airport to be able to accommodate triple parallel landings. A new runway also opened at Lambert Field near St Louis, but operations have plummeted at the American hub since 2001. ■
Source: Airline Business
