Issues that have been plaguing airports like Newark Liberty International and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta international were front and center on Capitol Hill Wednesday, as the Federal Aviation Administration faced questions from lawmakers on safety ahead of the big summer travel season.
Transportation said Newark Liberty, Philadelphia International Airport, and Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway international airports are examples of airports where air traffic controllers are less than 85% staffed
Experts said while the air system is safe, it is definitely being stressed out — which is why we might see fewer flight options this summer.
This mid-May, people at O’Hare have already been rolling into summer travel system.
“I’m actually 100% comfortable with the infrastructure,” said Garrett Peck.
But while some have no fear of flying, there were concerns about the situation at other airports. Newark Liberty has been making headlines for struggles with radar outages and numerous flight delays and cancellations due to its shortage of air traffic controllers.
“They better get their act together pretty quickly,” said Cristina Shea, who was traveling at O’Hare on Wednesday. “I mean, you don’t want to lose confidence in people who are flying — especially, you know, we’re heading into the summer.”
Should such issues be a concern for people traveling out of Midway and O’Hare this summer — especially Memorial Day weekend and on?
“What’s going to happen this summer is maybe what happened last summer, with the FAA last summer asking airlines to voluntarily cut down on the frequency of their flights so their controllers wouldn’t be overloaded,” said CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg.
Greenberg said with fewer flight options, prices will go up.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy appeared along with FAA officials in front of lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday to address the problems at Newark and across the country. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) expressed concern at the hearing about whether the FAA is ensuring that other airports don’t suffer radar outages like Newark.
The FAA said the radar at the facility in Philadelphia that directs planes in and out of Newark Airport went black for 90 seconds at 3:55 a.m. Friday, similar to an April 28 incident.
Another outage overnight Saturday caused a 45-minute ground stop at Newark.
All this is on top of the air traffic controller shortage.
While the FAA said there is no heightened significant danger to people flying, it is doing what it can to remove all risks.
“You are dealing with four or five separate issues that have all combined right now,” Greenberg said.
Greenberg said the FAA has to fix air traffic control staffing, training, equipment, federal procurement rules, and the original FAA mandate.
“They can order all the equipment they want, they can train all the staff they want, they can build all the towers they want, they can replace all the radios they want,” said Greenberg. “It’s not going to fix the core problem.”
Greenberg recommended that anyone traveling this summer try to book the first flight out with an airline that is not based at the airport from which they are flying. He said the crew for that flight will have arrived the night before, and will be well-rested and on time.
