The FAA has apparently determined the flight safety risk has returned to normal and its 6% across-the-board reduction in airline flights to 40 airports will be canceled at 6 a.m. Monday. “Today’s decision to rescind the order reflects the steady decline in staffing concerns across the NAS and allows us to return to normal operations,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. The heavily restricted access by GA aircraft to 12 of those airports will also come off as will restrictions on VFR approaches, nighttime space launches, and skydiving operations.
The agency said controllers essentially stopped calling in sick in disruptive numbers as soon as the gavel fell in the House. “Staffing levels have continued to snap back into place since the end of the government shutdown. The positive trend line continued over the weekend, with six staffing triggers on Friday, November 14, eight on Saturday, November 15, and only one staffing trigger on Sunday, November 16,” the agency said in its news release. “That’s in contrast to a record high of 81 staffing triggers on November 8. The current data aligns with staffing conditions before the shutdown.”
Bedford said he was grateful for the work of his staff to implement the complex restrictions and to keep things running safely, but it appears not all involved played by the rules. “The FAA is aware of reports of non-compliance by carriers over the course of the emergency order,” the release said. “The agency is reviewing and assessing enforcement options.”
It is hard to cheer for an on-off switch. Controllers did not create the problems that plagued the system long before the shutdown. Airports did not. Pilots, flight schools, students and passengers did not. Yet they are the ones who take the hit the moment Washington shuts the system off, then expects applause when it turns it back on. And no, this is not an argument for keeping restrictions. It is a reminder that flipping the system back on does not erase the shortages, fatigue, and training gaps that were already there. In Washington, pain is political. In aviation, pain is operational. The system absorbs the blow every time, not the people who caused it.
There is some glimmer of hope that there will be long term consequences from this stark display of political incompetence in Washington.
Problem is, considering they operate under the effect that every day is the stupidest day until tomorrow, seems only an injection of a disinfectant would help with that.
There was no need for the restrictions in the first place. I will say it did send a message to the flying public that this admiration is more than happy to punish at levels of the citizenry.
This is classic behavior by an entire administration who never had any intention of governing and wouldn’t know how to govern if governing was their intention. It’s what you get with people whose main ambition is to emulate Victor Orban and whose only policies are meanness and cruelty. This air traffic debacle is only the tip of the iceberg. Pop some corn and stock up on beer because the chickens are about to come home to roost.
This is what happens when you have a well-stocked toolbox, but your head mechanic is an idiot who knows only how to use the hammer …