By late July, 17 air traffic controllers will have replaced their headsets, left their aging workplaces on Long Island and moved to Philadelphia as part of a plan to address the long-standing problem of having enough controllers. He will be based in a new office in Delphia. To manage the skies around New York.
Despite being offered large incentives to comply, workers who do not want to uproot themselves and their families have balked at the move, and some powerful lawmakers have called for their support. Supporting the counterattack.
In a blistering letter sent to the Federal Aviation Administration last week, a group of New York state lawmakers, including Democratic Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, reversed plans to force employee reassignments this summer. requested the Federal Aviation Administration to do so.
Lawmakers argued the move would cause undue hardship to these workers. Schumer and his colleagues wrote that the FAA's “forced reassignment” is “not only confusing, but outrageous.” Air traffic controllers say family life will be disrupted, including newlyweds, children with disabilities and elderly parents caring for them.
The fact that the most powerful member of the Senate complains so loudly about a small group of workers highlights the power of the central nervous system of the Westbury, New York controllers – their terrible responsibilities, stress. It is an intense workplace with a lot of people and strong personalities that influenced the magazine articles. and the 1999 film Pushing Tin.
The anger of air traffic controllers and their supporters is attributable to the FAA's desperate efforts to find and train enough personnel willing to take on the demands of ensuring smooth and safe entry and exit of aircraft into New York's most complex airspace. There is a conflict. No matter how you look at it.
New York's hub has suffered from chronic vacancies for years, with recent staffing levels among the lowest in the nation. The FAA believes that by moving some of its operational responsibilities from New York to a more livable location, it will be easier to recruit more air traffic controllers over time, improving staffing levels and thereby improving aviation safety. We hope that performance and efficiency will improve. .
But the agency's plan also risks losing some experienced air traffic controllers who may be reluctant to transfer, which could further exacerbate staffing problems.
FAA spokeswoman Bridget Frye said in a statement that the move, scheduled for July 28, is necessary “to improve efficiency and ensure safety in this area.”
The group targeted for relocation controls the airspace around Newark Liberty International Airport, and the FAA says it could do so from either Philadelphia or Long Island. That's because controllers in this group use radar scopes instead of guiding aircraft from runway towers overlooking takeoffs and landings.
Last year's staffing shortages at the Long Island Building affected 4% of the 541,136 takeoffs and landings at New York's major airport last summer, according to FAA statistics. The agency expects the summer aviation season, which begins later this month, to be the busiest since 2010.
Air traffic controllers say they are also fighting with safety in mind. They say they need to be in the same room with their colleagues in New York, as they are now, to communicate quickly during a crisis.
“This is a very stressful job,” said controller Joe Segretto, president of the local chapter of the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers, which represents the New York airspace hub. For air traffic controllers, being forced by the FAA to relocate away from their spouses and children “will add tremendous pressure,” he added.
As the moving day approaches, the battle gets even bigger. The FAA has already introduced measures to reduce flight volume in the New York area by 10 percent to address reduced staffing levels at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control Building (internally known as N90) in Westbury. are doing. However, further staffing problems could mean there are not enough managers to manage the planned increase in production over the summer, forcing delays.
The fate of this handful of employees, out of more than 14,000, comes as their workload is strained by demands such as tackling jetliner assembly problems at Boeing and investigating the cause of recent train derailments. However, it has attracted the attention of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. It's a fight against what the Biden administration calls “junk fees” charged by airlines.
“The complexity of the N90 is more complex than the entire airspace of many countries,” Buttigieg said in an interview with The New York Times in December.
Given N90 staffing levels, “we know we need to be more careful with N90s,” he added. Only 59 percent of available controller roles in buildings are filled, according to FAA March statistics.
Last June, the FAA was criticized by its parent agency, the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General, for doing too little to address a longstanding shortage of air traffic controllers. Days after these findings were released, United Airlines delayed and canceled flights, impacting 150,000 passengers. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said the FAA blamed the controller shortage for exacerbating a situation where pilots were already battling severe weather in the New York area.
The controllers who work at N90, located in a chunky, windowless building on the outskirts of Long Island, are responsible for overseeing the early morning ascents and descents of hundreds of thousands of flights each year at John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports. I owe it. On a typical day or evening shift, at least 60 people move in and out of Newark alone every hour, according to FAA data. Although N90 is his second largest after Southern California's airspace, it is arguably the more important cog in the overall system, impacting the punctuality and health of hundreds of thousands of passengers each day. I am.
The FAA has been battling a nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers since the pandemic, forcing the suspension of on-site training at the Oklahoma City academy and air traffic control hubs across the country. However, the shortage of N90 personnel has become a particularly urgent issue.
The job of an air traffic controller is so demanding and specialized that many years of experience are usually required to perform the job. This includes her 18-24 months of on-the-job training with an N90, followed by assignments in less crowded locations. Westbury has been understaffed in recent years, with some air traffic controllers earning nearly $400,000 a year in premium pay, according to FAA documents reviewed by The New York Times. FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker makes much less, at $183,000.
Over the years, the agency has tried a variety of strategies to fill N90 vacancies, including offering raises, bonuses and adopting new hiring tactics. (Administrators say recruiting efforts have been attempted to target candidates without relevant experience, which some N90 administrators refer to as “off-the-street” hires, with little success.) )
Washout rates remain high. According to March FAA statistics, only 32% of N90 trainees achieved full certification, a rate much lower than at comparable facilities. A Department of Transportation report last year found that N90 observers were the lowest of any terminal radar approach control (Tracon) building in the country, with only eight of the 30 authorized slots staffed. .
The FAA has been working to relocate some N90 controllers to Philadelphia since at least 2020, but both the controllers union and the New York State Legislature have blocked the effort.
The latest effort to negotiate a move with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association began late last year. The two sides agreed in March to a package that included an initial 15% incentive bonus and a $75,000 payment for permanent residents in Philadelphia, according to documents reviewed by the Times. But the FAA took a tougher stance about six weeks later because it didn't have enough volunteers to make the transfer to Philadelphia happen, according to an April 29 memorandum seen by the Times. . The FAA reportedly notified more than a dozen N90 controllers of the following: Be involuntarily reassigned.
At the union's request, U.S. Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, whose district represents N90, compiled a May 7 letter asking the FAA to cancel the reassignment. Schumer was joined by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and four other members of Long Island and surrounding areas. Three of them, including D'Esposito, were Republicans.
“There are people who actually have strong, solid jobs, but they're not moving because they want to, they're moving because we're telling them to. ” D'Esposito said in an interview. “That's not a good situation.”
Some controllers that do not move may be reassigned to new roles on the N90. However, getting a new position depends on proving to the FAA that the transfer creates an unreasonable hardship and requires more than one year of training to fill the new position.
The FAA, which spent $36 million renovating and upgrading Philadelphia's Tracon Building, recently tried again to make the move attractive. In an April 29 memorandum mandating the transfer of 17 employees, the agency increased incentives to $100,000 for air traffic controllers who relocate temporarily or permanently to Philadelphia.
Still, union branch president Segretto and many union members remain unwavering.
“We are completely against it,” he said. “An air traffic controller is forced to choose between pursuing his career and leaving his family or quitting his job.”
mark walker He contributed reporting from Washington.
