AviationAirports yet to be affected by sequestration-related cuts

Published 8 March 2013

Since sequestration went into effect last Friday, both  airport authorities and DHS have been saying that that passengers should prepare themselves for  longer wait times at security checkpoints. So far, airports in major cities have reported no discernible increase in wait time at security lines.

Since sequestration went into effect last Friday, both  airport authorities and DHS have been saying that  that passengers should  prepare themselves for  longer wait times at security checkpoints.

The Wall Street Journal reports that, so far, airports in major cities have reported no discernible increase in wait time at security lines.

DHS said that $85 billion in sequester over ten years  will force customs and immigration checkpoints to be understaffed. Last weekend, at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and Miami International Airport in Florida, passengers already experienced  two to three hour waits.

The waits were “150% to 200% as long as we would normally expect,” DHS secretary Janet Napolitano told the Wall Street Journal. “We will see these effects cascade over the next week.”

The long lines and unusual wait times have yet to begin at most airports, but a hiring and overtime freeze will eventually reduce the number of staffers among federal airport workers, according to federal officials who have promised that the sequester will not affect safety conditions or procedures.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) told the Journal that a hiring freeze could result in more than 1,000 vacancies by the end of May, and 2,600 by the end of September. Wait times could double at security checkpoints during holidays and busy travel periods.

The FAA is also considering cutting other programs, such as air-traffic controller training as well as hiring and overtime hours. According to the administration, overtime hours for employees are imperative to keep plane traffic moving smoothly at busy airports around the country.

The FFA could also cut overnight shifts at seventy-two medium-size airports around the country as well as cut funding for 238 small airports by next month. Those tower closings at the smaller airports represent half the control towers in the United States, according to the American Association of Airport Executives, but most of those airports do not have commercial service, and the ones that do say they do not expect to lose service.

“It’s obviously safer when you have a tower controlling separation between faster jets” and slower, smaller aircraft,  James Parish, assistant director of the airport in Punta Gorda, Florida, which has about three commercial flights a day and added a tower last year, told theJournal. Without a tower, “we would continue as we had before.”

Napolitano said that when it comes to New York City, which could be a prime target for terrorist attacks, DHS’ partnership with the New York Police Department is more important than ever.

“We are just beginning to see impacts of the sequestration that came into effect last Friday,” Napolitano told reporters. “The Coast Guard has to curtail maritime operations in the waters off the coast of New York by 24 percent.”

Napolitano also added that because of the cuts being made to the FAA as well as the Customs and Border Protection, during the summer “the wait time at the J.F.K. International Airport will increase by up to 50 percent, and peak daily wait times could exceed four hours.

“We do not want this,” Napolitano added. “We will work hard to fulfill our security missions to the best of our ability.”