While delays in pockets of the East Coast due to weather appeared to exceed the problems due to staffing, the lack of controllers continued to have an impact on Friday.
The FAA attributed delays at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the nation’s busiest hub, at least partly to staffing at the Jacksonville facility. Andy Gobeil, a spokesman for the Atlanta airport, said he was hopeful the delays wouldn’t mount later while cautioning that “we are aware of the interconnected nature” of the travel system.
The delays at LaGuardia occurred because of the sometimes arcane way the air-traffic system deals with congestion and how that ripples through the nation.
Washington Center, which handles high-altitude traffic in the middle of the Eastern Seaboard, had an increase in the number of controllers calling in sick.
When that happens, the FAA immediately cuts the number of flights that controllers must handle to ensure that the system remains safe and predictable. While aircraft flying to and from dozens of airports pass through Washington Center’s airspace, a decision was made to halt planes headed for LaGuardia.
Such delay programs, known in this case as a ground stop, happen almost every day throughout the nation as the FAA maintains order of the thousands of flights. Mostly they occur because of weather and rarely get attention in the media.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.