PubZone1 Files a Motion for Stay in U.S. Appellate Court, Asks Administration for 30-Day Implementation Delay and Seeks Legislation to Prevent 
 
 Air Traffic Controller Furloughs 
 
 WASHINGTON, April 19, 2013 – Airlines for America (A4A) , the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines , today filed legal action to prevent the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from furloughing air traffic controllers and from implementing widespread ground stops that the agency reported would cause delays of up to four hours at major hub airports, impact up to 6,700 flights a day and affect one out of every three passengers. 
 
 
 
 A4A filed its motion in U.S. Appellate Court for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking a stay to halt the FAA’s Capacity Reduction Plan, which is based on false premises and would do substantial harm to the airlines, their employees and their customers. In addition to the legal action, which is being joined by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and the Regional Airline Association (RAA) , A4A continues to seek legislation that would deem air traffic controllers essential and therefore not subject to furlough, as they have historically been treated. A4A has asked and continues to ask the Administration to delay furloughs for 30 days to allow time to address the issue legislatively. The FAA recently delayed its decision to close contract towers by more than two months after being sued by several communities scheduled to have their airport tower closed. It should do no less for the national airspace system. 
 
 
 
 A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio said the association has been asking the FAA for months for specifics about how it plans to implement furloughs of air traffic controllers to meet its required sequestration 10 percent budget reduction. In a meeting with association and airline representatives just this week, the FAA indicated it plans to furlough air traffic controllers at facilities across the board on April 21. It also indicated it will institute automatic ground stops that same day without regard to conditions, which will cause delays systemwide. The FAA provided no specifics to airlines, but did indicate some airports may see a reduction in flight arrivals of 40 percent. 
 
 
 
 “The math simply does not work, and it is irresponsible to suggest that a 10 percent reduction of air traffic control hours should mean 40 percent fewer flights can arrive on time,” Calio said. “It’s unjust, unnecessary and completely irresponsible.” 
 
 
 
 Calio noted that A4A obtained third-party legal opinions that also confirmed that the FAA has greater discretion in how it implements cuts and further noted that when the FAA shut down for two weeks in 2011, it was able to do so without furloughing any air traffic controllers. No flights were canceled or delayed as a result of the FAA shutdown. 
 
 
 
 “Air traffic controllers have never been furloughed, regardless of any budget cuts, and there is a reason for that—they are critical to maintain the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System,” Calio said. “We continue to believe that the FAA has other means to reach a 10 percent budget reduction than to impact the traveling public. When a company needs to make a 10 percent budget reduction, the answer is not to make it is so inefficient that no one wants to do business with it anymore. That’s essentially what the FAA is proposing, and in doing so harming the 2 million passengers and shippers that fund two-thirds of its budget.” 
 
 
 
 Calio noted that other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration made cuts without furloughing frontline employees. 
 
 
 
 “Air travel is vital to our economy and to jobs, and it is the FAA’s mission to ensure we have the safest most efficient system possible,” Calio said. “This plan flies in the face of that mission, and if the FAA’s projections are accurate, it will needlessly inconvenience passengers and shippers, hurt our economy, jobs and our industry.” 
 
 
 
 Through its “ DontGroundAmerica.com ” campaign A4A is calling on airline customers, employees, families and friends to join the fight and send a letter to President Obama, Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary LaHood, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Huerta, and their members of Congress to tell the Administration to end this now. 
 
 
 
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 PubZone2 ||||| After months of inside-the-Beltway drama, the impact of sequestration cutbacks moved to center stage America on Monday as the aviation system was slowed by the furlough of 1,500 air traffic controllers. 
 
 With about 10 percent of the controllers who direct 23,000 planes a day scheduled to be off daily until October, both industry and government officials forecast that the effect would snowball as the nation enters peak travel season. 
 
 Short on staff and besieged by brisk winds at the three big New York area airports, controllers fell behind by mid-morning Monday and never caught up. The Newark, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports reported delays of one to three hours. 
 
 Most flights from the major Washington area airports ran close to on time, but some headed to New York faced long delays on the ground. 
 
 When New York’s three mega-airports fall behind schedule, that often has a ripple effect as far as the West Coast. By mid-afternoon Monday, flights into the US Airways hub in Charlotte were late in arriving; by evening, airports in Miami and Los Angeles reported lengthy delays because of controller shortages. Meanwhile, an ice storm at Denver’s airport further gummed up the system. 
 
 View Graphic How sequestration will impact federal departments 
 
 As TV crews panned across anxious and angry passengers in New York terminals, the debate revived in Washington over whether the controller furloughs announced last week were necessary or a White House ploy to dramatize the effects of sequestration. 
 
 “Our aviation system should not be used as a pawn in budget debate,” said Lee Moak, president of the Air Line Pilots Association. “The livelihood of our economy is dependent on air commerce, and the financial strength of our airlines and the people they employ are at risk.” 
 
 He predicted that delays would spread in the weeks ahead if the Federal Aviation Administration presses on with a plan to recoup $200 million of the $637 million it must cut to meet sequestration goals this fiscal year. 
 
 After the furlough plan was presented last week, House Republicans insisted that FAA cuts should be made elsewhere and the airlines went to court in an attempt to block them. The Obama administration brushed off suggestions that air travel had become “a political football,” but crowds of delayed passengers undoubtedly made better television than announcements that federal office workers would have to take unpaid days off. 
 
 The FAA has estimated that a third of passengers will face delays during the furloughs, with up to 6,700 flights arriving late at more than a dozen major airports each day. On the worst travel day of 2012, when severe weather crippled the system, about 3,000 flights were delayed. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D.-Nev.) predicted that fliers would face lengthy waits at virtually every airport. 
 
 The longest delays were expected at major hubs, including the three that serve New York, two in Chicago and those in Atlanta; Charlotte; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Los Angeles; Miami; Philadelphia; San Diego and San Francisco. 
 
 “In airports across the country, millions of Americans will get their first taste of the pain of sequestration,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “But many Americans have been feeling that pain for weeks. We cannot and we should not only address the FAA cuts. We cannot ignore the sequester’s overall effect on Americans.” 
 
 Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), ranking member of the House aviation subcommittee, defended the FAA furloughs as necessary but said the issue needs resolution. 
 
 “There’s a lot finger-pointing going on, but the simple truth is that it is Congress’s job to fix this,” Larsen said. “Flight delays are just the latest example of how the sequester is damaging the economy and hurting families across the country.” 
 
 But as the first effects of the controller furloughs began to be seen, some Democrats broke ranks to say that Congress should find money elsewhere to reverse the cuts. 
 
 “Simply put, we cannot allow these furloughs to go through, because if they go through, it will make flying on a normal day seem like you’re flying in blizzard weather,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) said at a Sunday news conference. 
 
 Greg Principato, president of a group that represents U.S. airports, said the cuts would “create a ripple effect throughout our highly interconnected system, affecting travelers at both large and small airports. We believe that these delays will get significantly worse as we move into peak summer travel season.” 
 
 Passengers faced another sequestration frustration as furloughs of Transportation Security Administration workers caused peak-hour backups at security checkpoints, and passengers on international flights arriving at Dulles International Airport faced 30-minute delays clearing short-staffed customs stations. 
 
 “We’re basically telling them to plan on a little bit of extra time to clear security,” said Chris Paolino, spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. “In terms of the FAA [furloughs], it’s almost like a weather situation, where we’re advising people to check with their airlines in case there are delays.” 
 
 At noon Monday, the lines at TSA checkpoints at Reagan National Airport were long, but travelers and officials said that was normal at peak hours. 
 
 For the most part, travelers said they had not experienced big delays. 
 
 Juliana Mejia, who has relatives in the D.C. area, was heading home to Madrid and said she arrived earlier than usual to catch her flight to New York before her connecting flight to Spain. 
 
 “If it indeed turns out as bad as it has been described, I just hope it’s not today,” she said. “I have yet to see the long lines. So far, everything looks pretty smooth.” 
 
 Arriving from Dallas, D.C. resident Orion Vanhart said he almost missed his flight because of delays getting to the gate. He said he noticed longer-than-usual lines at the checkpoints coming in. 
 
 “I am here now so I can’t be mad,” Vanhart said. “I was just a little frustrated back in Dallas.” 
 
 A few flights at National were behind schedule. 
 
 Marcie Hickman, 43, a business traveler who shuttles between offices in North Carolina and Washington, said her flight from Raleigh was delayed for almost an hour Monday morning. 
 
 “To me less than an hour is not a big deal,” she said, hurrying to claim her luggage. “Just a little delay, nothing bad.” 
 
 Betty Kirkland, 54, was headed home to Atlanta on Monday afternoon. Her 1 p.m. flight was delayed by 30 minutes because of announced “air traffic” delays. 
 
 “We knew there was going to be some issues, and we were pretty lucky it was only 30 minutes,” she said. “It wasn’t too bad, can’t complain.”
– Here we go: Those promised airport delays, the result of furloughs caused by the sequester, have arrived. All three major NYC-area airports saw flights falling behind schedule yesterday and, as the Washington Post puts it, air traffic controllers "never caught up," with delays clocking in at between one and three hours. Backups at those three airports have the unfortunate tendency to reverberate, and delays started hitting Miami, Los Angeles, and Charlotte in the latter part of the day. Why? Air traffic controllers—1,500 of them—went on furlough; TSA and customs furloughs also caused backups at some airports. About 10% of all air traffic controllers will be off each day until October, and the FAA predicts one-third of passengers will experience delays during that time. Here's some really awful context: Airlines for America reports that the FAA estimates delays could hit 6,700 flights a day; last year's worst travel day saw 3,000 flights delayed due to weather.