File photo shows the air traffic control tower at Chicago’s Midway International Airport.
M. Spencer Green | AP
Aviation industry members on Tuesday again urged lawmakers for newer air traffic control technology and more hiring of air traffic controllers as airlines proceed to complain about longtime shortfalls, while air travel demand has boomed.
Their testimony was delivered to a House committee hearing a few month after an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing all 67 people on board the 2 aircraft within the deadliest U.S. airline crash since 2001.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last week that the Trump administration is taking steps to extend air traffic controller staffing, raising starting salaries by 30% for workers who undergo the Federal Aviation Administration’s academy.
Air traffic controller staffing is down about 9% from 2012, while air travel demand has hit records, in keeping with testimony from Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
Duffy’s comments come as President Donald Trump has tasked his billionaire advisor Elon Musk with cost-cutting throughout the federal government. But Musk’s involvement has raised concerns about conflicts of interest from Democratic lawmakers, especially because the FAA is one among the regulators of Musk’s company SpaceX.
The associated fee cuts have included layoffs of about 300 FAA employees. The Department of Transportation said it didn’t include air traffic controllers.
“This demoralizes your complete workforce and distracts from the agency’s efforts to modernize and improve the aviation system — in addition to taking away from the first mission of the FAA to make sure the security and effectiveness of the U.S. aviation system and ultimately, the security of the American flying public,” David Spero, president of Skilled Aviation Safety Specialists, said in written testimony.
He said, “blanket changes, indiscriminate dismissals or other arbitrary edicts won’t help this country maintain the safest air traffic control system.”
For his part, Nick Calio, head of Airlines for America, which represents major U.S. airlines including United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and others, advisable counting on Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency or “procurement experts from the private sector to revise the procurement standards, policies, practices and procedures of the FAA to scale back any impediments to the acquisition of economic products and industrial services, or other sources, as required.”
