Austin among top US airports facing impact from ATC shortage this holiday season

While much of the focus on the Air Traffic Controller shortage in the United States has been on the East Coast airports, particularly those serving the New York City area, there are others in the country that are also under severe strain.

And one of them is Austin–Bergstrom International Airport, which is said to be significantly understaffed.

With holiday season traffic keeping airports across the US busy, some are finding it harder to maintain smooth operations.

Austin–Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) is one such example that has faced flight delays due to the understaffing of its Air Traffic Control Department.

According to KUT News, one Austin-bound passenger recalled having to remain at Raleigh-Durham International Airport for an extended period of time because her flight was delayed because of an air traffic controller situation in Austin.

The report points out that Austin Airport currently has 33 fully certified controllers, as opposed to 35 last year. And the actual number of controllers available to manage flights might be smaller than that.

US Rep. Lloyd Doggett told KUT News that two controllers are unable to perform their duties on medical grounds, and a couple are on their way out.

Effectively, that leaves around 29 controllers to manage the airport. This is when Austin needs 60 air traffic controllers to manage its operations effectively, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the air traffic controllers union.

One of the ways suggested to ease Austin Airport’s problem is a recommendation to change its category from Class C to B. Doggett says that this would help the airport have more authority and manage its operations better. The report also quotes him as saying,

“We're among the top four or five airports in the entire country in terms of air traffic control shortages. This just should not be happening. I talked with the FAA administrator [Monday] and to the assistant that he has who's providing those numbers. We differ on the numbers, but we more importantly differ on whether the FAA is providing margin of safety that we need in Austin.”

In November, Austin Airport had flight delays due to a shortage of staff in the ATC department.

The Traffic Management Program had to be implemented, which delayed several flights arriving at the airport.

According to reports, around 120 flights were affected , although the delay lasted for about half an hour.

However, this hinted at the larger problem of inadequately staffed air traffic control at Austin and at several other airports in the United States.

But the issue isn’t just about flight delays and cancelations. There have been many close calls at US airports in recent times, several of which have been attributed to overworked air traffic controllers.

This has led the US government to put the pedal to the metal on hiring more controllers, but so far, it has not resolved the issue completely.

Several other US airports are in a similar situation. Those serving the New York City area are often in the news because of operational disruptions due to a staff shortage.

United Airlines has not been happy with the ATC situation at its primary hub at Newark International Airport.

On 12 days out of the first 25 days in November, the FAA had to reduce Newark’s traffic simply because there were insufficient controllers to manage the flights smoothly.

More than 340,000 of United’s passengers were affected because of this, including 1,880 passengers on a single day on November 15 due to flight cancelations.

The FAA has been actively hiring new air traffic controllers to ease the situation.

This year, it has taken on 1,800 new ATC workers, the highest number of annual new hires in over a decade. But it might take some time before things get back to normal.

The FAA has also chosen two colleges for its Enhanced AT-CTI program. Graduates from these colleges can go directly to an FAA facility for training, as discussed in detail in the article below.