US Senate to hold hearing on government shutdown impact on aviation safety

WASHINGTON - A US Senate subcommittee will hold a hearing on Nov 19 on the impact of the government shutdown on aviation safety after thousands of domestic flights and millions of passengers were impacted by disruptions.

The hearing to be held by the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee will include testimony from National Air Traffic Controllers Association president Nick Daniels and Mr Chris Sununu, the head of Airlines for America, the trade group representing major air carriers, the committee said, confirming a Reuters report.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last week took the unprecedented step of requiring a 4 per cent cut in flights at the 40 busiest airports because of safety concerns tied to rising air traffic controller absences.

The flight cuts are set to rise to 8 per cent on Nov 13 and 10 per cent on Nov 14.

Some airlines told Reuters they think the FAA will reduce the planned flight cut on Nov 13 to 6 per cent and phase out the order as air traffic staffing improves.

The government shutdown is expected to end later on Nov 12.

Mr Sununu said airlines want Congress to ensure air traffic controllers are paid in a future government shutdown to “make sure this doesn’t happen again”.

Also testifying will be the head of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.

Air traffic absences have led to

tens of thousands of flight cancellations

and delays since Oct 1 when the shutdown began and impacted more than 5.2 million passengers.

Last weekend, 1.2 million passengers were delayed or had flight cancellations due to air traffic controller absences.

Mr Moran, who chairs the aviation subcommittee, said “the government shutdown has severely impacted our already fragile aviation industry, and recovering from its effects will take time”.

He added it was “critical that we address the damage done and look at the long-term effects of the shutdown”.

Senate Commerce committee chairman Ted Cruz said the FAA and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy mandated the flight cuts “because the safety data the FAA relies on to keep the system safe was blinking red.”

The 43-day shutdown, the longest in US history, has forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration agents to work without pay.

The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels.

Many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown and Congress approved US$12.5 billion (S$16.3 billion) to rehabilitate the ageing US air traffic control system, which has suffered numerous technical failures. REUTERS