akonradi

After a somewhat manageable delay (~ 2 hours) this evening, which the flight deck blamed on reduced ATC staffing, I'm curious to hear from others how the cuts are affecting operations systemwide.

Has anyone else been delayed because of these cuts yet? Any plans to change travel patterns for the next few months? It looks like we may have a "fun" summer ahead of us...

I am most curious to know how Delta handles IROPs in these cases; how flexible can we expect them to be in re-accomodating passengers when the entire network is chronically constrained during the summer?

For reference, DL has posted the following travel advisory:

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...furloughs.html

Safe travels to all, and best of luck in avoiding sequester-related delays!

Dovster

I will be flying in and out of JFK on my way to/from LAS in two weeks.

The way I see it, this merely gives me the opportunity to get in some gambling before I arrive in Sin City.

benzemalyonnais

I still don't understand why this will cause delays - probably a bit of drama I guess....

Circled around jfk for 30 minutes tonight but thats nothing new. Kind of felt like arriving at heathrow

FlyingBear

LAX operations were completely messed up tonight (Sunday 4/21). A majority of SFO-LAX flights were cancelled and it seemed like there were system wide delays. We were only delayed 1.5 hours but the previous flight was cancelled. Basically it seemed like the equivalent of a very bad weather ground hold. FAA website attributed it to STAFFING and the pilots confirmed it was due to a shortage of ATC since they are not allow over time.

Even the parking lot was trying to deal with more than normal passengers arriving past midnight..

Good luck to those travelling this week. For once, I am happy to be on the ground!

CJKatl

Flew ATL-PHL Sunday afternoon...

There are more people going through the Pre-Check line in ATL, many of whom have not done Pre-Check before. Coats, shoes and belts were being taken off and liquids were being fished out of suitcases before the TSA staff stopped people. Obviously this is being done to make the TSA lines faster overall, but it slows down those of us who have been using Pre-Check for the past almost couple of years.

Landing in PHL, taxiing in was slow. As had been predicted, it seemed ATC could not handle both take-offs and taxiing planes simultaneously. We landed early and got to the gate on time, but we did spend longer than usual getting from the landing runway to the gate.

okwhynot

Zero issues at CBP: Postive handling of passengers:
TSA thru to connecting flights (1) line and backed up with long delays :

HDQDD

Looks like the "staffing" delays yesterday were all relegated to LAX and N90 (the NYC TRACON). Today will be a better test to see what we're in for long term as many flights no-op on Sundays.

ATC doesn't have time to explain all their decisions, so pilots tend to exaggerate or assume things. I learned a long time ago that most pilots really don't know much about the ATC system outside of how it affects their flight. So to the OP I wouldn't believe everything they tell you. At least with smartphones you can access the OIS from the plane and see for yourself.

rylan

More manufactured delays to maximize impact and delay to cause an uproar. Sorry, but Sun traffic is relatively light and no reason for having massive delays like this.

I wonder which airport the FAA will 'target' today for slapping with exorbitantly long delays.

jalves

For this thread to be useful it would be best if you could compare your post-sequester flight observations with what you experienced pre-sequester.

Random observations of what happened, or didn't happen, on a particular flight or airport don't tell us much about the impact of the furloughs without a baseline to compare them to.

rylan

Don't know if this is normal for Mon morning, but LGA has a ground stop traffic management program in effect now, and 45min+ holding pattern delays for incoming aircraft.

TTT

A thread about this poped up over the weakened with some nice comments from ATC and pilots. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...xt-week-4.html
Admittedly, this thread has a better title. Maybe mods could merge?

HongKonger

Or maybe "the sequester just started and they're still figuring everything out," but conspiracy theories with a political axe to grind are more satisfying I guess.

FlyingBear

So after some sleep, just some other observations that could be useful.

- The news hit the SFO staff like a ton of bricks. It seems like operations did not keep them well informed initially. They did a good job overall of trying to handle everybody by bringing in more CSRs to deal with the line. Hopefully, now that they know to expect this, they will be a bit more prepared.

- At SFO, for the cancelled 7pm flight to LAX, they were offering to either let you wait for our possible delayed flight, rebooked on the morning, or refund. I asked if I could get a hotel voucher if I had to overnight. The reply was that since it was an ATC problem, not Delta's fault, no hotel voucher would be provided. They did bring out the drink and snack cart into the gate area as well.


[\rant ON] I'm not a mod, but I'm taking a stab here. IMHO, this thread should focus on delays due to FAA and/or TSA staffing shortages. Please keep all political discussion about why/need/cause/etc.. to OMNI Politics. I think it would be more useful if we got a sense of how Delta responds, how it affects us, and useful information for avoiding or dealing with problems (my $0.02) [\rant OFF]

jrl767

terrific typo!


+1

mtkeller

+2 (or whatever it will be by the time I finish this)

I don't come to FT for politics. Therefore, I stay out of OMNI/PR. I do not need to see posters editorializing here about their views on the budget situation. I trust the mods will deal with RBPs as they come in, but I think urging everyone to please restrict their political discussions to OMNI so that we don't have too many posts for the mods to deal with is worthwhile.