The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is ending the emergency order that forced mandatory restrictions on flights from 40 major airports across the United States on Monday and normal operations will resume across the National Airspace System (NAS).
This was announced by the US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford on Sunday. The FAA safety team recommended terminating the order following detailed reviews of safety trends and the steady decline in staffing-trigger events at air traffic control facilities.
Bedford said: “Today’s decision to rescind the order reflects the steady decline in staffing concerns across the NAS and allows us to return to normal operations. I am grateful for the hard work of the FAA safety and operations teams and for their focus on the safety of the traveling public.”
Duffy added: “Now we can refocus our efforts on surging controller hiring and building the brand new, state-of-the-art air traffic control system the American people deserve.”
An FAA statement said that “staffing levels have continued to snap back into place since the end of the government shutdown. The positive trend line continued over the weekend, with six staffing triggers on Friday, November 14, eight on Saturday, November 15, and only one staffing trigger on Sunday, November 16. That’s in contrast to a record high of 81 staffing triggers on November 8.”
The FAA also removed restrictions on commercial space launches and re-entries and general aviation flights at some airports.
FAA had halved the flight-cut requirement from 6 per cent to 3 per cent on Friday, although airlines have not been complying with the requirements anyway. Carriers on Sunday cancelled just 0.25 per cent of flights at those 40 airports – less than normal cancellations – according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm.
The agency added that it is aware of reports of non-compliance by carriers over the course of the emergency order. The agency is reviewing and assessing enforcement options. Several major airlines told Reuters on condition of anonymity that they had not cancelled any flights for Monday and were not planning to do so.
ATC staff received their pay cheques on Friday, two days after a record 43-day government shutdown ended.
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