Ship raft-equipped planes to assist cut back Florida flight delays, Buttigieg tells airways

Forward of the busy vacation journey season, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has a request for airways: Ship extra planes outfitted with rafts to Florida.

Airspace round Florida is congested for a large number of causes, and Buttigieg stated he’d like airways to make use of extra of the offshore routes situated over the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s east coast. These routes — which require further survival tools, together with rafts, on board in case of emergency — had been underutilized final winter, he stated in a letter Thursday to airline CEOs.

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Federal rules take into account plane that fly greater than 50 nautical miles (57.5 miles) from the shoreline to be conducting “prolonged overwater operations.” In these circumstances, the planes require extra tools, together with rafts, life jackets, pyrotechnic signaling units (akin to flares), emergency beacons and a survival package. Not each plane accommodates this tools, which is pricey to each purchase and keep — to not point out, it weighs a substantial quantity.

Buttigieg’s letter comes after an early summer time of great flight delays round Florida. Whereas the worst of the delays have subsided, airways and the Federal Aviation Administration proceed to dispute their root trigger. Airways imagine air visitors management staffing is inadequate, significantly at a facility close to Jacksonville, Florida, that handles visitors en path to and from the Sunshine State. For its half, the FAA has stated that airways have to work on staffing up, in addition to right-sizing schedules.

Extra: House ships, storms and different causes your Florida flight may very well be delayed this summer time

Buttigieg addressed either side of the controversy within the letter, which had a largely upbeat tone; his notes resembled feedback made in September by performing FAA administrator Billy Nolen.

He stated that the power close to Jacksonville, generally known as the Jacksonville Air Route Visitors Management Heart, has elevated its staffing by 10% (although these are trainees who will largely contribute longer-term to the power). He additionally famous progress made with airspace closures as a result of area launches.

As for airways, he stated that the trade has discovered from what he known as an early summer time “stress check.” He added that the trade had made progress with “long-term staffing points” and singled out the massive pay will increase that regional airline pilots have seen lately, as these carriers grapple with a pilot scarcity.

Extra: The room the place it occurs: Contained in the FAA Command Heart

Buttigieg additionally turned his consideration to 2 different key markets which have seen progress lately: Denver and Phoenix. He implored airways to share progress plans with the FAA as early as attainable to make sure ATC staffing assets are correctly deployed.

“FAA can also be seeing indications that routes between Colorado and Arizona may expertise even larger quantity than final yr,” Buttigieg wrote within the letter, a duplicate of which TPG acquired.

“The earlier you can also make FAA conscious of progress plans in high-growth markets akin to Denver and Phoenix, the more practical we will be in aligning assets to ensure air visitors controllers are prepared to reply,” he added.