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The FAA predicts that as many as 6,Gucci Handbags,700 flights daily could arrive late due to sequestration budget cuts. Travel experts provide some tips on how to cope.
Plan ahead and be patient.
Travel experts say that's the wisest action people can take to lessen the frustration of mounting flight delays brought on
by federal government budget cuts.
Federal Aviation Administration furloughs of air traffic controllers kicked in this week, leading to at some of the busiest airports and dire
predictions of a possible "" as the busy summer travel season approaches.
The Transportation Security Administration's imposition of a hiring and overtime freeze could compound travelers' headaches by
creating long backups at airport security checkpoints.
So what's a weary traveler to do?
"I think primarily just be prepared for it. If you travel in morning, early in day, you tend to be in better shape. Delays tend to accumulate and
propagate during the day," Hansman told MSN News. "The other thing is when possible, take nonstop flights. You're more likely to be
interrupted if you have a stop."
"The best advice I can give would be to keep up to date with your flight info," said Andrew Taylor of . "As long as you're aware of a delay
you can plan your trip to the airport around that. You have to be your own advocate in that sense."
NYC Aviation, an aviation news website, has compiled a to deal with the impacts of sequestration. Here it is in abbreviated form:
You can also take the train or bus, but that's not practical or time-effective on most cases.
Eric Simmons, an airline pilot who runs the website , said the most effective coping mechanism would be to reverse the budget cuts and
FAA furloughs.
"To be honest, the best action is pressure Congress," he told MSN News via email while delayed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
Airport.
Airlines, sensitive of a potential loss of revenue and an unhappy flying public, have also created a for passengers to complain to the FAA.
The travel pains experienced so far by flyers are a far cry from an "apocalypse," but government and industry officials say the situation will only
get worse ? especially at major airport hubs ? as furloughs cut FAA staffing by 10 percent.
On Monday, the first weekday of FAA furloughs, more than 1,200 flights were delayed due to staffing cuts, the FAA said. More than 1,400 additional
delays were blamed on bad weather and other factors.
"Travelers can expect to see a wide range of delays that will change throughout the day depending on staffing and weather-related issues," the FAA
said Tuesday.
The FAA has estimated that as many as 6,700 flights could arrive late daily, and a third of passengers will face delays during the furloughs, which
are scheduled to last through September. That's more than double the number of flights delayed on the worst travel day of 2012, when severe
weather crippled the system, .
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"The airports that will have most trouble are facilities that are short-staffed already and those in the busiest metropolitan areas like New York,
Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco," said John Hansman, an aeronautics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The nation's busiest airport, Atlanta?s Hartsfield, could face delays of as long as 3½ hours under FAA worst-case projections. FAA chief
Michael Huerta said last week that delays at Hartsfield will average 11 minutes for all flights if one runway can?t be used as a result of
furloughs.
The FAA also projects increased delays at New York?s three major airports, and in Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles. The agency says delays at the
large hubs could ripple to other airports.
There's no way for passengers to tell in advance which airport or flights will experience delays due to FAA staffing reductions because each
airport has different traffic volumes, patterns, technology and configurations. But the FAA said it studied actual airport traffic at 13 major
airports on March 29, a clear-weather Friday, and calculated the projected impact of fewer controllers on each facility.
At six airports ? Newark's Liberty, New York's JFK and LaGuardia, Chicago's O'Hare, Los Angeles International and
Atlanta Hartsfield ? the FAA predicted "average delays" ranging from 50.4 minutes at O'Hare to 10 minutes at LAX, and "maximum delays"
ranging from 210 minutes at Atlanta to 50 minutes at JFK. The estimated delays don't take into account other factors such as bad weather or
equipment problems.
The FAA said it would release predictions for seven other airports ? Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Chicago Midway, San Diego
and San Francisco ? later.
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