Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday the FAA will order airlines to cut 10% of flights at 40 major airports to mitigate the effects of the government shutdown on flight safety. In a news conference, Duffy told reporters the cuts are a “proactive” measure. The traffic reductions will be imposed on Friday morning and although there will be consultation with airlines, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the reductions will be based on easing the strain at the most seriously affected facilities. “This is not based on light airline travel locations. This is about where the pressure is and how to really deviate the pressure,” said Bedford.
The announcement appears to be a change of direction for the government a day after Duffy said it might be necessary to close sections of airspace to maintain safety. Many aviation experts noted such a move would be impractical given how intertwined the National Airspace System is. The FAA says it is battling increasing absenteeism at air traffic control facilities as the shutdown drags on. Staffing shortages have caused tens of thousands of flight delays in the past couple of weeks. FlightAware statistics suggest delays and cancellations have been dropping steadily in recent days, and by 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday there had been about 2200 delays and 150 cancellations nationwide, some due to weather. That’s about a third of the totals at this time last week.
The plot thickens, or maybe “The beat goes on”. What Duffy calls “proactive” looks more like controlled collapse. Cutting 10% of flights at the 40 busiest airports from ATL and DFW to DCA and FLL is not strategy, it is triage. The FAA is not easing pressure, it is admitting pressure has won.
Controllers are stretched thin, unpaid, and still showing up to keep the system running. This is not about passenger demand but about keeping towers and radar rooms from cracking after weeks of political mismanagement.
Both parties let it rot, and now we are cutting schedules to hide the smell. The top 25 airports will take the first hit, the rest will follow.
Nationwide, that 10% means about 1.5 million flights pulled from the schedule. Roughly 4,200 fewer flights per day, or about 100 a day at each major airport. That is not “proactive,” it is a slow shutdown in motion.
I’m going to disagree with you Raf, on one small point that constantly sticks in my craw. The fact is, this is EXACTLY the original meaning of “proactive,” which was later hijacked. The person who coined the term “Proactive” in modern day was Stephen Covey, in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” In that book, he defined it as having a choice — “Between stimulus and response, is choice.” Exercising the ability to make that choice is what he defined as “proactive”.
Proactive does NOT mean pre-emptive, which so many have redefined it to mean.
In other words, until there is a stimulus, any action you take is NOT proactive. That’s just being pre-emptive, and planning ahead. So I’ll give you a real life example of what is the difference.
I’m a government sub-contractor working for the FAA. I could be furloughed at any moment. Due to previous experience with shutdowns, I’ve put money aside to prepare me for the possibility of another shutdown. That was pre-emptive, not proactive. There was no shutdown forcing me to do this. I simply made a plan for a rainy day, as it were.
Now I’m in a shutdown. If I get furloughed, I can choose to A) take leave without pay, B) use vacation time, C) use money from my rainy day fund, or D) some combination of all of the above. Deciding whether to do A, B, C, or D, is proactive. The stimulus is the shutdown. I make a CHOICE of how to respond. I don’t let events dictate what I do, in other words RE-act. I PRO-act. I make the choice, not something on the outside controlling me.
Duffy had a choice, and in fact still has a choice. He could shut down the entire airspace theoretically. He can shut down portions of it. He can look for other funding to pay the controllers. He can resign for that matter. He HAS choices. By MAKING a choice, rather than just letting events overcome him.
Now, you can disagree with that choice. In a fistfight, you might choose to hit back, while I might choose to turn the other cheek. Fine. We disagree on our response. But don’t pretend before you hit back that you didn’t have a choice. Or worse yet, don’t just REACT without thinking about your choice, or failing to recognize you have a choice.
AND, realize there will be consequences to that choice. One of my favorite life sayings: “You always have a choice before your feet leave the bridge.” In other words, you can control your actions, but not the consequences. Too many of us want to choose our actions then expect someone else to bail us out of our consequences. Covey talked about that too: “You pick up one end of the stick, you pick up the other.”
Again, you may disagree with Duffy’s proactive choice, and think the consequences are too great. You may have made a different proactive choice. Good! But by simply making a choice in response to the shutdown, Duffy has definitely been “proactive”.
Thanks, Ken. I like how you broke that down, good reminder about Covey’s take. Words mean something, and you nailed that one. Had to look this one up.👍
Thanks Raf. I spent several years teaching the “7 Habits” course, and the way “proactive” has been taken out of context across the board annoys me. Not so much the new meaning, rather the loss of the original intent Covey had. The whole concept of being “proactive” is so much more powerful than simply “planning ahead”. The loss of that original, much more powerful meaning, of our ability to CHOOSE, that we are in CONTROL of our response to a stimulus, is the real loss in my opinion.
Shutdown Reagan National and watch the government shutdown end quickly.
Order your popcorn early, folks. This will be a fun movie.
Sec. Trans. Duffy doesn’t need to cut 10% of flights tomorrow. All he has to do is …
“-Pay essential FAA workers during shutdowns, same deal the military gets.
– Bring back retired controllers on short-term contracts to fill the gaps.
-Push more trainees through the academy pipeline.
-Take a hard look at fatigue and overtime before the next close call or accident.”
Self appointed Deputy Vice Sec. Trans. ‘Raf’ says so in the previous OpEd talking about “Exposing the Real Crisis.” Duffy should listen to his sage advice.
Problem solved … no cut back needed (sic) Operations can continue as normal.
And … Mark … ya better watch out. I suggested shutting down the DC sector in that same OpEd and was immediately attacked by Vayuwings, et al. Stop suggesting something that might at least get ‘their’ attention in Congress.
Okay…the government ends the shutdown of itself, sends out checks including back pay, and the ATC workforce returns to 6 days a week, 10 hour a day shifts, and mandatory overtime on top of all that. And that is a solution? Everything fixed?
As long as controllers don’t protest, as long as the public does not protest the outrageous expectations placed on controllers and maintenance personnel, this country’s leadership will continue this dangerous, outrageous exploitation of this sector of the workforce.
Public complacency combined with ignorance facilitate and enables a selfish expectation of personal on demand, all weather with 100% perfect safety, travel. It is unlikely the average end user will even think about let alone investigate the incredible burden it is to show up 10 hours a day six days plus a week and keep aluminum tubes from trading paint from anything from a J-3 to an F-35. Why? They make big bucks, so suck it up and get back to biz as usual.
At this time, us few who have some knowledge of the multiple challenges of ATC can and should at least contact our representatives in behalf of controllers who are stuck at a cross road of business abuse as usual, with the possibility one could lose their job if they dare speak out, slow down their performance risking again political, financial, and personal retribution for challenging the status quo… or just remain silent and continue doing what they have been doing hoping they can live life in retirement… if they live that long. What a lousy cross road to be at.
However, I see this government shutdown as an opportunity for the people working within the ATC system, to do what could not be done under Reagan. Now is the time to say … ENOUGH!… and walk out. There is no viable support system for replacement of this talent like there was in 80-81. The economy is already on life support, airlines have little reserves, and one of the highest travel season of the year is two weeks away. It will not take long for a near instant reversal of no paychecks, along with the best opportunity with social media that did not exist in 1980 to awaken the globe, including US population to the reality of worker abuse and technical antiquity of the FAA. I see no other way to improve working conditions and the patchwork of 50 year old plus hardware/software that is a major contributor to this present ATC system stress load.
What’s not being said loud enough about this 10% cut is that it’s more than a schedule trim, it’s a warning that the system’s running out of airspeed. Controllers are still on the job with no pay, the pipeline’s thin, and calling it “precaution” doesn’t make it right. We don’t need another quick patch; we need a real fix. Pay the people, bring back the furloughed, lift morale, and steady the system. Keeping it safe is a basic job of government, and government, last I checked, is supposed to be by the people, for the people… not by the patch, for the press release.