Counting the cost of the FAA furloug

With US federal aviation staff back at work, Justin Burns measures the impact of the furlough on the industry.

The US Government’s 16-day shutdown in October saw about 15,500 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) workers furloughed and its registry office closed. It is estimated to have cost the aviation industry dearly. 

Not since 1996 had it seen such a crisis. Then, federal workers were furloughed for 27 days as US politicians were deadlocked over funding for Medicare, education, the environment and public health in the budget.

This latest shutdown, which was the first for 17 years, came about after the US Treasury’s funds ran dry and the government had to file for a higher debt limit, or do without. Republicans and Democrats wrangled over the nation’s soaring debt before Congress finally agreed to end the stalemate and raise the country’s $16.7tn deficit a mere 24 hours before the deadline.

Wall Street economists have estimated it may have cost the US economy about $24bn, while the cost to the aviation industry is yet to be fully understood. Its members are still assessing the damage, although many are just relieved it is over. 

Counting the cost
An estimated 700,000 federal employees were furloughed, among them about 15,500 FAA workers and 3,000 aviation safety inspectors. Separate to those 3,000 were 2,800 members of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), which included support specialists and engineers. 

During this time, the US air traffic control system ran close to a ‘yellow’ alert level as workers running radar and other equipment were also furloughed.

However, 14,600 federal air traffic controllers – who were deemed essential to the safe running of flights – remained on the job. This meant there were few, if any, flight delays or cancellations. 

The government’s sectioning of workers into essential and non-essential categories created more than a little controversy. Many believed it had made poor judgements and furloughed staff who were crucial to safe operations. 

Among those furloughed were: Operation and manufacturing inspectors; engineers; legal instrument examiners; compliance specialists; flight inspectors; flight procedures specialists; and administrative staff. 

The implications were far-reaching. For example, a manufacturer cannot hand an aircraft to an airline without the aircraft first being checked by a FAA safety inspector. Similarly, all maintenance on existing aircraft must be checked before they can fly again. Yet all those inspectors were furloughed.

Also, airlines, aircraft makers and suppliers could not get parts and systems certified for use in aircraft.

NATCA said in a statement that projects, including the Next Gen programme, were affected and will take months to recover as a key deadline was missed. Other projects, like fixing key navigational aids and construction of facilities, such as the new control tower in Las Vegas’ McCarran Airport, were brought to a halt.

NATCA added: “Starting up again will not be easy or as quick as flipping a switch, it will be more like getting a freight train up to speed. The task now remaining is stabilising how our aviation system is funded.” 

The FAA’s aircraft registry, in Oklahoma – which usually registers about 10,000 aircraft a month as well as carrying out pilot registration – was shut, meaning deliveries were delayed. 

“There is now a backlog of inspections of three weeks and the pressure is on the safety inspectors to do them as people want aircraft inspected,” Linda Goodrich, VP of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) union, said when she spoke to AFM in late October. 

The shutdown could have created significant delays in aircraft deliveries, but they did not show a significant hit. Airbus delivered 59 aircraft in October, two more than the same month in 2012 and up on the 51 in September this year.

Boeing delivered 54 in October, down on the 62 it delivered in September, but up on the 50 it delivered in October 2012.

However, Airbus was reported to have been unable to deliver an A321 aircraft to JetBlue and other aircraft to the US Airways Group. 

Boeing was able to mitigate at least some damage as, being an FAA Organisation Designation Authorization (ODA) holder, it has the authority to perform some of its own certification work on behalf of the FAA. A Boeing spokesman said its staff worked with customers to “mitigate any potential delivery impacts”.

When Goodrich first heard who was being furloughed she thought the FAA had made a mistake. During her 40 years in the industry – which included work as a pilot, mechanic, and more than 15 years as VP for PASS – Goodrich has witnessed the highs and lows of the US aviation system. But she said the furloughing of many staff should never have happened and questioned why these key aviation employees were told to stay at home.

“There is a document from the Department of Transportation that says one of the things exempt from furloughing was flights standards inspection, yet someone made the decision to. Inspectors on the railroad were not furloughed. Why was aviation?

“Aviation safety has always been critical and essential unless you are going to shut down the whole system. As aviation safety professionals responsible for the regulatory side, this was a significant hit to us,” said Goodrich.

According to the VP, the furloughing was “completely avoidable”. She believes that safety was compromised and that politicians should have come to an agreement much sooner.

“From PASS’ perspective, the shutdown of the government for even a day has an impact on the aviation industry. It was unnecessary and totally avoidable and we got in the middle of politics, which put the [aviation] system in jeopardy,” she explained. “Our system is dependent on all parts functioning and one piece not functioning for three weeks increases the risk.” 

She added that PASS relies on the data collected by FAA officials in order to monitor the industry. But due to the shutdown, none of this data was collated, meaning the full cost of the furlough is almost impossible to calculate. 

Source:www.afm.aero