Air traffic control keeps planes moving. So why does it cause delays? | Cruising Altitude

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For at least the last few years, and possibly much longer depending on who you ask, air traffic control has been at the heart of summer flying headaches. A shortage in the ranks of air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration has meant that when severe weather hits, as it invariably does during the warmer months, there are fewer people to reroute planes through hemmed-in airspace. It doesn’t mean the flights that operate are unsafe, but it does often translate to delays and cancellations that cascade through the system. 

In some particularly busy patches of the sky, like the area around New York City or the part handled by an overtaxed center in Jacksonville, Florida, air traffic control short staffing has meant airlines are required to reduce the number of flights they operate on some routes. 

Over the last few weeks, Newark Liberty International Airport has been the poster child for issues at the FAA, after a major equipment failure so rattled air traffic controllers, many of them requested trauma leave, leading to days of delays and cancelations. 

While Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced plans to boost hiring and improve air traffic control technology, he’s hardly the first Washington bureaucrat in his position to make such promises. 

So how did we get here, and will the Trump administration be able to deliver on promises so many of its predecessors have made, but that have gotten bogged down by Congressional infighting and red tape? 

Old technology and an overstretched workforce 

Duffy doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the problems at the core of the FAA (and his role in perpetuating them) head on. 

“We’ve had years of neglect, decades of neglect. It’s been a patchwork of fixes, partial funding, and you can blame me for that, I was in Congress during part of this as well,” he said during a recent press event at which he announced planned technology and infrastructure improvements for the agency. 

Experts say that underinvestment really is the root cause of most of the headaches in the current U.S. air traffic control system.  

"The FAA, for all of its faults, it can only respond with the tools that it has. Congress has underfunded, understaffed and underequipped the FAA’s air traffic control division for four decades,” William J. McGee, senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, told me. 

Duffy said it’s gotten so bad that the agency sometimes needs to source replacement parts for ancient equipment on eBay, because they’re no longer made or sold by modern manufacturers.  

But old equipment isn’t the agency’s only problem. 

According to Duffy, the air traffic controller ranks are about 3,000 people short of the agency's target for efficient airspace management, which puts extra strain on the people who handle flights every day. And while Duffy said the FAA plans to do what it can to facilitate hiring, he and others acknowledged the shortfall can’t be addressed overnight.  

“Any progress is good news but we have a big hole to dig out of here,” McGee said. “As these things take more time, you have attrition. It’s a goalpost that’s constantly moving due to people quitting, dying, getting fired, retiring etc.” 

Plans for improvement 

Over the past few weeks, Duffy has outlined a two-pronged approach to improving the nation’s air traffic control system, through hiring incentives and additional resources for air traffic controller trainees, as well as a series of technology upgrades including overhauling the FAA’s communication systems and building six totally new air traffic control facilities. 

“This technology is 50 years old that our controllers use to scan the skies to keep airplanes separated from each other,” he said during one of the announcements. 

Duffy also said he plans to provide financial incentives to new hires and is taking other steps to bolster the FAA workforce. 

Dr. Sharon DeVivo, president and CEO of Vaughn College, an aeronautics technical school in Queens, New York, said schools like Vaughn have a role to play as well. 

“The FAA is not going to solve this alone,” she said. “There are institutions across the country that are eager to help, that are eager to work closely with their air traffic control partners in their region.” 

She said students that study in eligible programs to be air traffic controllers can bypass some of the early training requirements and accelerate the timeline to getting into the tower. 

She also said it’s important to raise awareness of the career as a lucrative option, particularly in underserved communities. 

“This is a great job. If you have the mental acumen and the personality disposition for it, it’s an awesome, awesome career path,” DeVivo said. “We are the best institution in the country at moving students from the bottom 20% in income to the top, and part of that is because we have students who go on to be air traffic controllers and make six-figure salaries.” 

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What could still get in the way 

Fixes to the nation’s air traffic control system won’t happen overnight, and there are two major stumbling blocks that have hampered similar efforts in the past: funding and red tape. 

In the press event announcing the FAA’s planned technology improvements, Duffy called on Congress to fund all the projects upfront, rather than waiting on the regular 5-year FAA funding cycle that is often a partisan football on Capitol Hill. Further, he asked for lawmakers to cut red tape so modern technologies could be introduced into air traffic control towers more quickly. 

Left unsaid is how to ensure those improvements are made safely. FAA regulations are typically designed to ensure any changes are thoroughly checked and that there’s a plan in place if new technology doesn’t work as intended. 

The radar and radio blackout at Newark showed how difficult it can be when technologies fail for air traffic controllers, but also highlighted the importance of making sure any changes are done in a way that doesn’t disrupt the aviation safety net. 

Industry stakeholders largely approved of Duffy’s plans, and I join their optimism that improvements could be coming, so long as they’re handled properly. 

“There’s a sort of fallacy that people have, as if there’s one national system and somebody somewhere flips a big switch and suddenly every airport in the country is on a big new platform,” McGee said. “Air traffic control is a collection of a million separate moving parts.” 

Travel tips for summer 

Whatever improvements are ultimately made, they won’t come in time for this summer. So if you have plans to travel, make sure you strategize against possible disruptions. 

Early morning flights are typically the least likely to be canceled or delayed, and taking nonstop flights whenever possible reduces your chances of an issue during your journey. If you have a time sensitive event, like a wedding or a cruise, it’s a good idea during the peak travel season (or any time of year, really) to build in a buffer so you don’t literally miss the boat if your flight has problems. 

(This story was updated to change or add a photo or video.)

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for Paste BN. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.