Flights to LAX were temporarily halted Sunday as the FAA cited a shortage of air traffic controllers linked to the ongoing federal government shutdown.
The Federal Aviation Administration said flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted Sunday morning due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility.
The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed and canceled in the coming days as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown.
During an appearance on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures,” Duffy said more controllers were calling in sick as money worries compound the stress of an already challenging job.
Air traffic controllers once did have a union, they went on strike, and then Reagan fired everyone. The union was decertified by the government and dissolved.
The FAA also never fully recovered and has been short-staffed since Reagan.
Which means they can’t ever do that again, which should have given the power back to the ATCs to simply ignore the law and strike anyway.
Even Trump can’t make new ATCs appear out of thin air.
Well that’s the thing, just like Reagan, he can use the military to temporarily replace them.
Military airfields have the same procedures
Then they should do that so they earn pay more honestly than invading people at home and abroad.
Many do, but you don’t understand that once you sign up for the military you are trapped in it for a while.
Also I generally don’t try to hate the individual that much. We all know the US military is designed to target the most impoverished and desperate in our society to feed them to the war machine. There are many places in the United States where the only way to escape poverty is the military. This is intentional, it creates the illusion of a “volunteer” military and frankly people care less when poor people die.
SMH. You referenced Reagan, as in the US administration. That’s who I referenced.
What? You’re suggesting that Reagan should have left the presidency to be a full time air traffic controller? Or are we talking about soldiers from the 80s?
I thought it was pretty clear we were talking about modern day America and using examples from the past to demonstrate the options that Trump could use
The admin. Holy shit, so much for inference.
Might happen again at Thanksgiving.
That would be such a hilariously sad type of self harm. I don’t think the staffing has even fully recovered from the Reagan layoffs.
I would imagine it has, but… ATC training takes a few years and the ones who have stuck it out have been in those roles a long time. There is a cohort of staff who all started and will leave the service at around the same time. I would imagine they are seinor staff or managers by now in their careers, but that much institutional knowlege leaving at the same time would be just as damaging.
You would think that… But before the strike there was 14k ATC controllers, full capactity.
Right now there are currently 10,643 fully-certified air traffic controllers operating 313 federal facilities across the nation.
The total number of certified controllers required to fully staff all facilities to established staffing targets is 14,633.
The American national airspace system is 72.7% staffed with controllers. There is a deficit of 3,990 certified controllers.
Nah they still have the union, but it’s illegal for them to strike so it’s pretty toothless.
“Illegal”
That’s what they thought last time they striked. Reagan fired them all even knowing the chaos it would cause.
I doubt Donny could pull it off though.
They still do have a union. It’s just illegal for them to strike.