Although airline flight delays due to sequester measures have grabbed the headlines, business aviation is also being affected by reduced staffing levels at air traffic control facilities. An aircraft management company on the East Coast told AVweb that a planned flight from the Baltimore area to South Carolina was scrubbed because air traffic control problems effectively ground stopped it. “The pilot was told that ATC was not accepting any departures over GVE or DAILY,” a representative of the company told AVweb. “No estimate of when departures would be available was given, and no optional routing was offered.” Meanwhile Dallas/Fort Worth Airport is the latest to report major traffic headaches, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
In a bulletin sent to the media, NATCA said that as of late morning arrivals at DFW were delayed by 30 minutes and they were increasing. A ground stop was in effect at Dulles and a ground delay was affecting flights at Reagan National. LAX was experiencing its third straight day of delays. Ironically, to cope with the situation, some controllers are being asked to work overtime at time and a half, thereby negating some of the cost savings of the furloughs.
