April 23--Flight delays hit Memphis International Airport as a short-staffed national air traffic control system was put to the test on Monday.
Memphis logged about 20 late departures and an equal number of late arrivals between midnight and 4 p.m., but some flights were delayed for reasons other than the air traffic control slowdown.
The Federal Aviation Administration began furloughing nearly 15,000 air traffic controllers over the weekend to meet a congressionally mandated budget cut. However, the start of the working week was the first opportunity to see how the controller cuts would affect air traffic.
Memphis airport vice president of operations John Greaud said, "The local folks (FAA) told me last week they really didn't expect it to be a problem. Our air traffic does just a fantastic job. They work really hard to keep the aircraft moving."
A check of the flight-tracking website flightstats.com showed 23 departures and 19 arrivals delayed in 16 hours Monday. Greaud said delays seemed to be showing up among incoming flights from congested airports such as Washington, New York and Chicago. A Delta flight from New York-LaGuardia, scheduled to arrive at 8:05 a.m., arrived at 11:29 a.m., for example.
Controllers have been ordered to take one unpaid day off every two weeks, leaving air traffic towers and radar rooms with fewer people to monitor air corridors. Memphis has more than 300 certified air traffic controllers working at three facilities.
One out of every five flights at New York's LaGuardia International scheduled to take off before noon on Monday was delayed 15 minutes or more, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. Last Monday morning, just 2 percent of LaGuardia's flights were delayed. The situation was similar at Washington's Reagan National Airport, in Newark, N.J. and in Philadelphia.
The furloughs are part of mandatory budget cuts that kicked in on March 1 after Democrats and Republicans missed a deadline to agree on a long-term deficit reduction plan.
FAA officials have said they have no choice but to furlough all 47,000 agency employees. The FAA has said that planes will have to take off and land less frequently, so as not to overload the remaining controllers on duty.
Critics have said the FAA could reduce its budget in other spots that wouldn't delay travelers.
Monday is typically one of the busiest days at airports with many business travelers setting out for a week on the road. The FAA's controller cuts -- a 10 percent reduction of its staff -- went into effect Sunday. but the full force wasn't felt until Monday morning.
The FAA reported about 1 percent of Sunday's 35,000 to 40,000 flights experienced controller-related delays, but the agency couldn't say how that compared to a typical Sunday.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association called for the FAA to scrap the furloughs.
"On Sunday, the first day of the furloughs, lengthy delays at major airports in New York and Los Angeles inconvenienced passengers and contributed to further delays across the country despite mostly good weather and flying conditions," a NATCA statement said. "The delays could have been worse had the controllers not stayed after their shifts at key facilities like (Los Angeles International) Tower and Atlanta Terminal Radar Approach Control."
Some travel groups have warned that the disruptions could hurt the economy.
The Consumer Travel Alliance complained the FAA isn't providing a service that passengers are paying for through fees in airline tickets.
"If these disruptions unfold as predicted, business travelers will stay home, severely impacting not only the travel industry but the economy overall," the Global Business Travel Association warned.
Deborah Seymour was one of the first fliers to face the headaches.
She was supposed to fly from Los Angeles to Tucson, Ariz., Sunday night. First her 9:55 p.m. flight was delayed four hours. Then at 2 a.m., Southwest Airlines canceled it.
"It's pretty discouraging that Congress can't get it together and now it's reached the point that we can't get on an airplane and fly," Seymour said.
Delta Air Lines warned travelers to expect delays in New York, Philadelphia, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Copyright 2013 - The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
