FAA Chief Says Airline Delays, Cancellations Improve

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Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said Tuesday that on-time performance by U.S. airlines has improved and cancellations are down substantially. “We are keeping our eye on things. We’ve seen good improvements,” Nolen told two reporters at the Farnborough Airshow. “We can see overall delays are down… The airlines are working to right size their network.” Reuters quoted him as saying. Nolen also rejected claims by the airlines that short staffing at ATC facilities was behind the snarled schedules a couple of weeks ago.

Nolen said most of the issues “are not in any way shape or form related to air traffic (staffing) shortages.” Nevertheless, he took the opportunity to brag about the agency’s latest recruitment efforts. “We are on track to hire 1,000 controllers this year,” Nolen said. In a recent recruiting call, the agency attracted 57,956 applications he said. Nolen also said Jacksonville Center will get more staff. JAX has been singled out by airline CEOs as a bottleneck in the system because of staffing shortages.

Russ Niles
Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Mr Nolan, another worthless FAA bureaucrat! The airline CEO’s are correct about Jacksonville center being a bottleneck in the system.

  2. Even a rational libertarian realizes the foolishness of most privatization. It only sounds good until you get into the incentives and other issues. It’s not a thinking man’s solution.

  3. Staffing is definitely not the problem, we have enough staff!

    You will be happy to know we are hiring many more people!

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