By mid-afternoon Wednesday, United, which maintains a hub at Newark Liberty International Airport, had canceled about 15 percent of flights nationwide that were planned for that day, according to FlightAware. Endeavor has canceled about 12 percent of its flights, while JetBlue has canceled about 9 percent and Republic about 8 percent.
United and JetBlue attributed the problems to the weather, but also to the Federal Aviation Administration
In a statement on Wednesday, United said the shortage of air traffic personnel over the weekend had contributed to a “difficult operating environment.” That censure echoes what United CEO Scott Kirby told employees in a memo earlier this week, saying the “FAA frankly let us down this weekend.” JetBlue said in a statement that it struggled to keep up with its flight schedule after air traffic control limited flights for all airlines to and from New York airports.
What’s really going on with FAA employees?
The FAA said it had no issues with air traffic control personnel along the East Coast on Monday or Tuesday. The agency said in a statement that it will “always cooperate with anyone who seriously wishes to join us on a problem.”
However, air traffic control has always been understaffed, and controllers at many facilities often work six-day weeks to cover these shortcomings.
in A report published last weekthe Department of Transportation found that most of the 26 air traffic control facilities it identified were understaffed by 15 percent or more, as of March 2022. One such facility, New York Terminal’s Radar Approach Control, which oversees some of the most The country’s complex and difficult airspace facilities use only 54 percent of the target number of controllers.
The report said the issue was years in the making, something Mr Kirby of United also noted on Monday.
“It is not the fault of the current FAA leadership that they are in this severely understaffed situation – it has been piling up long before they are in charge,” he said in his team memorandum.
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