Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways and American Airlines will reduce the number of flights particularly in the New York area this summer due to a shortage of air traffic personnel.
The decision of the US airlines to shorten the number of flights in JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark, in New Jersey, up to 10% goes hand in hand with the guidelines of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in that direction.
“This summer is going to be really tough again,” JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes anticipated late last month at an event at the Economic Club of New York. “We need to reduce flights and make sure we can operate the ones we have,” he added, as quoted by Airline Weekly.
The FAA estimated in early March that air traffic control personnel in New York are at 54% of the necessary levels. At the national level, the workforce is 81%. Without the flight reductions at JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark, approximately 45% of all flights to or from the region could experience delays.
Last June, Delta CEO Ed Bastian called the lack of these employees the most stressful part of the organization chart.
Part of the problem is that it takes about three years to train these workers. This is in addition to the suspension of training during the pandemic when a shortage of air traffic controllers was already reported.
Additionally, the FAA is more vigilant of the work of these personnel due to dangerous incidents or threats of accidents between planes at various airports.
To try to deal with air congestion, the FFA will allow airlines to use up to 10% of their slots at JFK and LaGuardia airports and adjust runway hours in Newark between May 15 and May 15. September. The slot is the time slot or the permission granted, in this case by the FAA, for landing or taking off aircraft at airports.
Airlines must apply to the FAA for the waivers by April 30.
Delta, United and JetBlue are the three largest airlines with the most departures from NY area airports, according to the Cirium platform. Between the three airlines, they operated 69% of the departures from these airports between May and September last. A 10% reduction in departures between the three would represent an overall 7% reduction at the aerodromes.
In the case of American Airlines, a spokesman for the airline (the fourth largest in the NY area), said Monday that the company will temporarily reduce the frequency of flights on certain routes from LaGuardia and Newark.
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