As everyone knows, our nation is in a great amount of debt and is constantly trying to find ways to be more efficient and to cut into the deficit. Sequestration is one solution that has been brought up several times in the past, and it appears it is the approach the government is taking to try and turn things around.
Sequestration is the idea to cut budgets across all federal agencies. With budget cuts being placed on all federal agencies, the plan is supposed to be an indiscriminate way to lower costs with a very broad stroke. Sequestration was basically supposed to be a back up plan if other solutions were not formed, and since no other plan was made it is the only solution left for a problem that requires prompt action. Looked at from an aviation standpoint, the FAA will be required to cut millions of dollars from its budget and no one is too sure what the outcome and its affects to the aviation industry will be (NBAA, 2013).
These cuts imposed by sequestration are not a short term solution as they are laid out, they are long term plans that will have lasting effects. Although most of the FAA's budget is exempt from the sequester by law, they will still need to cut their budget elsewhere. The areas of the FAA's budget that are not exempt from the cuts include: scheduling of personnel, contract work being conducted for the FAA and preventative maintenance and repair work done to facilities and equipment used by the FAA and the aviation community. As you can imagine, cuts to these areas in such a 'safety first' arena could lead to problems in the future. The FAA has said time and time again that safety will not be compromised, but that the cuts will definitely affect day to day operations (NBAA, 2013).
Their plans to cope with the budget cuts include employee furloughs at least one day of every pay period. They also plan to cut air traffic control towers managed under the Federal Contract Tower Program, as well as government run towers, which serve less than 150,000 total operations or less than 10,000 commercial operations per year. An unofficial list of the towers to be cut has been constructed and is being discussed continually before making a final decision (FAA, 2013). This has the potential to greatly impact general aviation in a bad way. The agency expects problems with providing upkeep on its services and facilities. Navigational aids are one of the biggest concerns because they will be forced into scheduling preventative maintenance with longer intervals and in some cases not even servicing them at all if they are not a high priority (NBAA, 2013).
The sequester may lead to the customers losing their ability to fly when they want and how they want it like they can now. According to a study done by the Office of Management and Budget, the cuts could delay the implementation of NextGen by at least a decade. This will definitely cause ticket prices to increase as the airlines will incur greater costs and pass those expenses onto their customers. That along with cutting air traffic control towers and controllers, security screeners and customs officers leads many to be concerned for the future of an already stressed aviation industry. The airline industry is not the only section of aviation that will be affected. As I mentioned earlier, general aviation will take on some challenges in safety and efficiency with the closing of air traffic control towers and cutting the weather and navigational aid services that they rely on (Patterson, 2012).
Cutting air traffic control towers and allowing navigational aids to deteriorate will have a large impact on general aviation operations. The negative consequences that the general aviation community will face will be passed down to the airports that they fly into and the communities around those airports. Some communities rely on their local airport because general aviation supports business, agriculture, law enforcement and medical access and provides important economic support for these communities. These cuts will have a trickle down affect to many other things linked to aviation in one way or another and there may be many other unforeseeable implications (Fuller, 2013).
So is sequestration bad for the entire aviation industry and all related fields? To look at it optimistically, no, it is not all bad for everyone that is involved with aviation. Since long delays are bound to happen, airport vendors may benefit greatly from the budget cuts. It is hard to say if this will actually be the case or not, but it is one outcome that may be positive for at least on player in the aviation arena (Katz, 2013).
Overall, I am pretty worried to see how the aviation industry responds to the cuts enacted by the sequester. I think that it could be an incredibly different industry in the next ten years if nothing is done to reform the plan. It has potential to be extremely detrimental to the aviation industry and all other industries that rely on aviation in any form. Hopefully my pessimistic outlook will be completely invalid and the aviation industry will find a way to pull through this tough road ahead.
Thank you for reading,
Kyle Wagenknecht
References
FAA. (2013). Air traffic control facilities that could be closed. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from, http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/media/Facilities_Could_Be_Closed.pdf
Fuller, C. (2013). Letter to FAA administrator. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from, http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/articles/2013/pdfs/1303012letter-to-huerta.pdf
Katz, E. (2013). Not everyone hates sequestration. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from, http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/pay-benefits-watch/2013/03/not-everyone-hates-sequestration/61858/
NBAA. (2013). How 'sequestration' will impact the aviation community. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from, http://www.nbaa.org/ops/201302-how-sequestration-will-impact-the-aviation-community.php
Patterson, T. (2012). Will potential FAA cuts hurt fliers? Retrieved March 18, 2013, from, http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/16/travel/faa-budget-cuts
Kyle, I completely agree that the cuts that will be necessary for the FAA to make due to sequestration will undoubtedly have an adverse effect on aviation safety. GA has been growing steadily, and the thought of GA airfield towers being unmanned is terrifying, especially considering the diversity of the type of aircraft flown into these locations. The delay of the NextGen system is also damning, this whole thing looks bleak. I hope that some motivated individuals will find a way to profit from private development, or partnerships with the FAA, of programs that can abate these destructive hurdles in aviation’s path.
ReplyDeleteYou make it sound like the FAA is making their budget cuts by reducing the margin of safety (although not stated so). I agree with this thought. You don't mention that safety is being compromised, but reducing the amount of Air Traffic Control Towers without a doubt reduces safety at General Aviation Airports.
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