Expert Opinion
AIN Blog: FAA and the Sequester: It’s All Smoke and Mirrors

Months before the FAA began its short-lived policy of furloughing air traffic controllers and making plans to close 149 low-activity ATC towers, the agency was making dire forecasts about how the plan would affect various facets of the FAA’s areas of responsibility. One high-level FAA official said that mandated cuts were expected to be a significant issue for the agency going forward. He explained that the agency had to find places where cuts could be achieved without compromising safety.

Before Congress authorized the FAA to transfer money from the Airport Improvement Program to meet controller payrolls and keep the threatened towers operating at least until the end of Fiscal Year 2013, federal officials had predicted that controller furloughs would result in as many as 6,700 flight delays each business day. Congress was having none of it.