53flyer

The DoT cut will only be about 2% of it's annual budget. If LaHood can't manage that without "crippling delays" to the air transportation system then he should be fired.

slopeboy40

Yes! This affects the air traffic controllers directly. My son-in-law is one of them. We are going to feel this pain if this happens. If you care about it take a moment to let your representatives know. This link provides an automatic method to email your concern to your reps based on your zip code. Quick and painless.

http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/5893/p/di...ction_KEY=5541

slopeboy40

I'm a little worried about how this is going to affect travel for me and everybody. My son-in-law is a controller at PDX so I have been kept up to speed on this and it ain't gonna be pretty. I suggest if you care (and you should) you follow this link and let your representatives know. It's easy to do, put in your zip code and it automatically locates your rep and fills out the email.

http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/5893/p/di...ction_KEY=5541

Chugach

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B146 Safari/8536.25)

Forgive my ignorance but what are you talking about?

jackal

Clicking the link in the OP seems to give some indication that it's mandatory budget cuts that will (according to the ATC union) harm the ability of the FAA/ATC to operate.

Since this isn't directly related to Alaska Airlines, I'll go ahead and move this thread over to TravelBuzz!, where general travel topics are more appropriately discussed (and viewable by a wider audience). Then again, given the nature of the OP's post, perhaps this thread may be better served in OMNI/PR...

Regards,
jackal
Co-Moderator
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan forum

Spiff

I'm very much in favor of sequestration, unless even bigger cuts can be implemented.

As was mentioned, if a budget reduction this puny causes big problems, then those "in charge" of their respective agencies should be terminated.

orlandodlplat

With Washington once again staring down the barrel of Congressional dysfunction, the FAA is looking at cuts that could lead to mandatory ATC furloughs, and limit the number of flights taking to the sky.

For those of us flying 3/1, what can expect from DL? Will flights be cancelled? Consolidated into larger aircraft?

Getting a bit concerned... and i don't want a political debate here, just concerned about the practical impact of this nonsense.

wrytoast

Dear God! The country will surely grind to a halt if the Department of Transportation only spends as much money as it did... two years ago.

slopeboy40

It's not a big problem for the FAA at all. They have to cut $600million/yr. Business 101, to do that you cut payroll and close facilities. Smaller towers will be closed and larger towers will see manpower cut. TSA will drop a few officers from each airport (I know the smart-alecks will like that, but they're not going away, it'll just take longer now) and my guess is Pre-check will be a thing of the past. No problem at all for them. The problem is for us.

I could be wrong. As someone who flies every week, I hope I'm wrong. We'll find out soon enough.

FlyDeltaJets87

Aren't the ATC fulroughs going to occur at airports with little to no commercial service to minimize impact to the airlines? That's what I seem to remember last time this came up.

^

I_Can_Fly_US_Airways

For the most part! I remember when La Hood first spoke about FAA cuts a couple of years ago. Most of the "cut" money was going to small county airports that had ZERO commercial service. Or, spending $ on projects that had NO effect on transportation what so ever.

REMEMBER, "sequestered" cuts means cutting the proposed INCREASE, not the current levels. Ray LaHood needs more $, he can take some of the $8.5 Billion from the TSA as Lord knows that's the greatest waste* of government $ there is...

*Next to the Dept of Education that does absolutly nothing!!!

Spiff

I think you will be wrong.

Business 101 - you reduce discretionary spending and you suspend new hires. You increase productivity from existing employees and you shore up leakage.

TSA should have canned many of its useless employees long ago, without sequestration. Any employee involved in checking IDs, BPs, involved with the nudeoscopes, "chatting" up passengers per the voodoo, about-as-accurate-as-phrenology "behavior detection", sniffing shoes, sexually assaulting, or any of the other useless, unnecessary harassment introduced since the inception of this disease of an agency should be terminated.

By eliminating these bad actions, the screening process will speed up and be cheaper, while restoring civil liberties to passengers.

A far better solution would be 100% defunding/termination of TSA.

Ocn Vw 1K

Just as part of this thread was being moved to TravelBuzz from an airline forum (since combined into a merged thread), a few posters were debating general government issues that are off-topic for TravelBuzz but apt for OMNI. Those posts have been deleted.

In this thread, let's please discuss the travel aspects of any sequestration effects, per the topic. Thanks! Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.

Fly So Free

My understanding is that any Gov employee which would face a furlough is required to be given four weeks notice, thus you would be looking at early April instead of early March.

xliioper

Not DL specific. Existing thread in TravelBuzz --

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ts-travel.html

Also, long threads on a'net.