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Calio noted that A4A obtained third-party legal opinions
that also confirmed that the FAA has greater discretion
in how it implements cuts and further noted that when
the FAA shut down for two weeks in 2011, it was able to
do so without furloughing any air traffic controllers.
No flights were canceled or delayed as a result of the
FAA shutdown.
“Air traffic controllers have never been furloughed,
regardless of any budget cuts, and there is a reason for
that—they are critical to maintain the safety and
efficiency of the National Airspace System,” Calio said.
“We continue to believe that the FAA has other means to
reach a 10 percent budget reduction than to impact the
traveling public. When a company needs to make a 10
percent budget reduction, the answer is not to make it
is so inefficient that no one wants to do business with
it anymore. That’s essentially what the FAA is
proposing, and in doing so harming the 2 million
passengers and shippers that fund two-thirds of its
budget.”
Calio noted that other agencies, including the
Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation
Security Administration made cuts without furloughing
frontline employees. “Air travel is vital to
our economy and to jobs, and it is the FAA’s mission to
ensure we have the safest most efficient system
possible,” Calio said. “This plan flies in the face of
that mission, and if the FAA’s projections are accurate,
it will needlessly inconvenience passengers and
shippers, hurt our economy, jobs and our industry.”
Capt. Lee Moak, president of the Air Line Pilots
Association, Int’l, said “together with A4A and the RAA,
we call on the administration and Congress to work
together to provide the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) with the funding flexibility it needs to ensure
that essential aviation services are maintained during
sequestration and that front-line safety personnel are
not affected by these budget cuts.
“This is a unique situation. Our entire aviation system
will struggle to maintain normality due to furloughs of
these essential workers. The economic viability of our
country depends on this mode of transportation; everyone
will be affected.” The groups are asking the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit to review the agencies’ Capacity Reduction Plan
for sequestration and to authorize issue of an emergency
stay to prevent implementation of that plan pending the
court’s review.
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