All three of New York’s major airports. JFK, Newark and LaGuardia, were bracing for cuts in flights as early as Thursday, ahead of the FAA’s announced reductions Friday amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced Wednesday that the feds would be cutting 10% of air travel across 40 “high volume” airports, amid a worsening staffing crunch at air traffic control facilities.
The restrictions, Bedford said, would go into effect Friday. A spokeswoman for the FAA told the Daily News the list of airports expected to be impacted by the 10% reduction in flights has not yet been released.
But ABC News reported Thursday that it had obtained the list of airports slated for flight reductions, a list that included LaGuardia, Newark and JFK airports, as well as Teterboro airport in the New Jersey Meadowlands, which serves smaller, non-commercial flights.
As previously reported by The News, staffing at the two facilities that handle in- and outbound air traffic for Gotham’s airports has been low for years an issue that came to a head earlier this year amid technical cliches.
That problem has been compounded by the government shutdown now poised to enter its sixth week. Controllers nationwide have been expected to come to work without pay while the shutdown continues.
A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns all four airports, acknowledged the reports to the Daily News Thursday, but said the bi-state agency had not received any formal notice from the feds indicating there would be reductions.
A spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association — the union representing controllers — did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursdays. But union leadership has recently told reporters that their membership is stuck seeking side jobs to make ends meet.
“We are the rope in this tug-of-war game,” NATCA President Nick Daniels told reporters at LaGuardia last week.
“As the pressure mounts, as the stress continues, our controllers are thinking about how to have a side job instead of about safety, instead of about the flying public,” he said. “The only way to keep it safe is by slowing the number of flights in the air that they contend with.”
