Washington ( CNN ) -- Federal aviation officials are telling airline and airport executives that they are working to minimize any disruption from imminent government budget cuts to passenger airline service , but warn the mandatory belt-tightening will impact air traffic overall . At a meeting in Washington on Tuesday , the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA ) said it would give priority to 77 `` core '' facilities -- large airports and their related air traffic control centers , which it did not identify . But the agency would reduce staffing system wide and would likely close 238 control towers at less busy airports . Those towers handle 5.8 percent of all commercial air traffic , the FAA said . Opinion : Cuts too deep ? No , not deep enough . `` It was clear at the meeting that the brunt of the cuts were at the cost of general aviation ( private and business aircraft ) , and the agency even recognized that , '' said Melissa Rudinger of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association , a group representing private pilots in Washington . The Transportation Department faces about $ 1 billion in budget cuts through the end of the fiscal year unless Congress acts by Friday to avert them . The cuts are part of a political impasse affecting spending across the government . Much of the agency 's austerity will hit the FAA , which employs about 15,000 controllers and oversees traffic at more than 400 airports used by commercial airlines , business jets and private pilots . Large airports will also be impacted . All FAA employees have been told they may be furloughed at least one day every two weeks , inevitably meaning that aviation facilities will have fewer controllers . While the cuts would inevitably reduce the number of operations -- take-offs and landings -- the FAA said it would maintain the highest level of safety . The impact would be greatest at the nation 's small- and mid-sized airfields , the FAA acknowledged . The 238 control towers facing possible closure met a criteria established by the FAA : They have fewer than 150,000 operations a year and fewer than 10,000 commercial airline operations . Opinion : Cuts will turn off voters GOP is courting . Of those towers , 189 are `` contact towers , '' operated under FAA supervision by independent contractors . The remaining 49 are staffed by FAA controllers . FAA officials said it would consider removing a tower on a case-by-case basis if advocates could justify a change . But any towers spared from closure would have to be off-set by cuts elsewhere , they said . Most of the changes would occur at the start of April , and would ratchet up over a period of months . The first furloughs would begin April 8 , according to a meeting participant . If a tower is closed , operations at those airports would continue . But controller operations would be shifted to other facilities , or to the pilots themselves , who would radio their intentions to take off , land , and maneuver on the ground . Ground operations could present the biggest danger to pilots , since it would remove from service controllers who are trained to look for conflicting movements on the runways and taxiways . Critics say the FAA failed to consider important factors when compiling its list of towers , including whether the towers were also used for military operations and for search and rescue missions . FAA officials also said Tuesday it would suspend development of its NextGen navigation system so it could reassign employees to control towers . And it would suspend its redesign of airspace -- an ongoing program to make the area around airports more efficient . The FAA also said budget cuts would force it to cut back on maintenance and repairs at `` non-core '' facilities . Only power , voice and navigational systems would be fixed at those facilities , the FAA told the industry executives . Rudinger said while the FAA disclosed a few new details about its plans to deal with forced spending cuts -- known in Washington as sequestration -- it was `` certainly not as much detail as we were looking for going into the meeting . '' Participants in the meeting questioned whether the FAA is making the smartest cuts . ''Clearly they have to make the cuts , '' Rudinger said . `` What 's unclear is how they came up with them . There has n't been any transparency in the process . '' More spin than solutions as spending cuts near .
The Federal Aviation Administration met with FAA and airport officials . FAA oversees the nation 's air traffic control for airlines and private aircraft . Plans include closing some control towers in less busy areas . FAA employees have been warned they may be furloughed as part of cuts .