US must boost air traffic control staff as travel demand rises - senator
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[March 17, 2023]
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) needs
more air traffic controllers to address rising passenger demand, the
chair of a U.S. Senate panel overseeing aviation issues said on
Thursday, amid investigations into a series of recent runway incidents.
"We don't have enough pilots. We don't have enough maintenance people,
and we don't have enough air traffic controllers," Democratic Senator
Tammy Duckworth, who chairs the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee,
told Reuters.
A series of aviation close calls has sparked alarm and raised questions
about the safety of the U.S. air system.
The FAA has been deciding how many air traffic controllers to employ by
its budget "versus the actual need in terms of the traffic demands,"
Duckworth said.
The Transportation Department said last week it was seeking $117 million
to hire 1,800 air traffic controllers next year, in addition to 1,500
being hired this year.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), the union
representing controllers, has pressed the FAA to boost staffing.
Airlines and others have also called for more funding for air traffic
controllers and have pointed to times when a lack of staff impacted
flights.
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"We have a staffing issue," NATCA President Rich Santa said at a FAA
safety forum on Wednesday, noting there are 1,200 fewer certified air
traffic controllers than a decade ago.
"It's time for us to accurately and adequately staff the facilities," he
added.
Santa said a permanent fix was needed, along with a new staffing model,
while Duckworth said the FAA and NATCA should do a "thorough study" and
agree on the staffing levels required.
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A line of passengers wait to enter the
security checkpoint before boarding their aircraft at Reagan
National Airport in Washington, April 25, 2013. REUTERS/Larry
Downing
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Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell separately on
Wednesday called on the FAA to take action on previous National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendations.
The FAA said late on Thursday that it would write rules to require
cockpit voice recorders to capture 25 hours of information and
establish a committee to explore how to make greater use of data
gathered by airplanes, including expanded flight data monitoring.
After one of the recent runway incidents, the NTSB said the cockpit
voice recordings in both planes were overwritten and not recovered
because under current rules, the devices record only two hours. NTSB
Chair Jennifer Homendy on Thursday called the FAA decision "a win
for safety."
Cantwell said the United States should also require all airports
with passenger airline services to have ground improvement safety
systems to prevent runway incursions.
"We have to have the highest safety standards, and we have to have
the investment in modern equipment that is going to give us those
safety standards," Cantwell said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Jamie
Freed)
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