By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com
July 26, 2007
Poor working conditions are getting worse for air traffic controllers in the United States.
In addition to long hours, heavy workloads, and inadequate staffing, they face a myriad of other problems that wears them to a frazzle and contributes to the cancellations and delays that cause consternation for consumers daily.
Thats the word from a congressional committee charged with overseeing the nations sagging aviation infrastructure.
The release of the committees report triggered a sharp retort from the government agency responsible for controlling the controllers.
The House Aviation Subcommittee blames the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for dragging its feet in upgrading facilities for controllers, while the FAA says the same committee is interfering with its attempts to upgrade outdated facilities.
According to the committee, the FAA spent less than 25 per cent of the money it was allotted for maintenance: $60 million out of more than $250 million in available funds.
The congressional report also said some of the facilities used by air traffic controllers have health-threatening problems, including mold and asbestos, as well as conditions that could render obsolte equipment useless (water dripping onto computers from leaky roofs).
Such charges bother Rep. Jim Oberstar, the Minnesota Democrat who chairs the overall Transportation Committee for the House. He told reporters he found the FAAs failure to move aggressively during a time of increasing delays and cancellations to be "astounding."
Although the FAA says it has the funding to finance short-term fixes, that may not be sufficient, multiple sources say.
The agencys objective of tracking planes with Global Positioning System satellites would be a vast improvement over the current radar-based system and would certainly reduce the growing number of delays but wont be ready for years.
In the meantime, consumers are caught in the crossfire while Congress and the FAA fight over the future of flight. Even though the immediate feature looks far from rosy, the FAA says flight safety was never compromised.
