On twitter Friday, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association pleading for travelers to call their members of congress to let them know that the government shutdown needs to end now. According to the NATCA, the number of air controllers are already at a 30-year low, which leaves the training and hiring of new air traffic controllers impacted if the shutdown is long-term. Schilling says, “If it’s months, certainly there can be some degradation in the ability to get controllers on the scopes and get them working. If it’s years, it certainly would have an impact.”
BOSTON (AP) — A major winter storm brought some of the coldest temperatures of the season and covered a large swath of the country in snow as it wreaked havoc on air travel and caused slick road conditions throughout New England Sunday.
The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings or advisories for part or all of at least 15 states stretching from southeast Missouri to the northern tip of Maine ahead of the weekend storm.
Nearly 2,000 flights were canceled around the country Sunday, with Boston’s Logan Airport being one of the hardest hit, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking company.
Typically bustling security lines, ticketing counters and baggage claims were largely deserted Sunday morning at Logan Airport, but some stranded passengers lingered.
“We’ve been sleeping, playing Candy Crush,” said Xavi Ortega, a 32-year old engineer whose 10:30 p.m. flight to Barcelona was canceled.
Ortega said he and his wife, who reside in the Spanish city, slept overnight at the airport and wouldn’t be able to get onto another flight until Sunday night.
Meanwhile residents along the heavily populated coast from New York to Boston awoke Sunday having largely escaped major snowfall but bracing for plummeting temperatures that will likely lead to a hard freeze and potentially dangerous conditions.
Manhattan saw mostly rain, cities along Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts’ coast recorded two to five inches, but mountainous interior communities were blanketed in fresh snow.
The Adirondacks in upstate New York recorded up to 20 inches in certain areas while western Massachusetts’ Berkshires saw as much as 10 inches. Parts of the Vermont have registered a foot of snow and could see up to another foot by the time the storm is over.
Nicholas Nicolet and his 6-year-old son Rocco welcomed the fresh powder as they cross-country skied on the sidewalks of Montpelier, Vermont early Sunday morning during the storm.
“We think it’s great,” said Nicholas Nicolet.
Meteorologists warned the primary concern now is plunging temperatures that will be some of the coldest felt so far this season.
Wind chills were expected to hit in the teens in the New York City area, 25 below in Albany and down to 40 below in the Adirondacks.
In New England, they’re expected to fall to as low as 20 below zero around Boston, 30 below zero in the Berkshires and as low as 35 below zero in parts of Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire.
Officials warned people to limit their time outside to prevent frostbite and avoid treacherous travel conditions. They also said to prepare for flooding and power outages in places.
“It’s life-threatening,” said Ray O’Keefe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany. “These are dangerous conditions that we’re going to be in and they’re prolonged, right through tomorrow.”
As of Sunday at noon, utilities in Connecticut were reporting more than 19,000 customers without power and more outages were expected in the region as ice accumulated on trees and power lines.
“We had more freezing rain and sleet than we expected,” observed Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin as he extended his city’s parking ban so public works crews could clear streets before the ice hardened.
Amtrak canceled some trains Saturday from Chicago to Washington and New York and between New York and Boston and Pennsylvania on Sunday.
A ferry service route across Lake Champlain between Vermont and New York was also closed Sunday and flights were mostly cancelled at Vermont’s Burlington International Airport and New Hampshire’s Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
The powerful, wide-ranging storm was caused by the clash of an Arctic high-pressure system with a low-pressure system coming through the Ohio Valley.
It caused travel problems as it dumped up to 10 inches of snow on parts of the Midwest Saturday.
In Chicago, a plane skidded from a slick runway at O’Hare International Airport. No injuries were reported. In Kansas, a snowplow driver was killed when his vehicle rolled over. And in southeastern Missouri, slippery conditions caused a 15-vehicle crash on Interstate 55.
President Donald Trump urged Americans affected by the winter storm to “be careful” in a tweet early Sunday, but, as he’s done in the past, he conflated the short-term weather phenomenon with longer-term climate change.
recently rejected the idea that a particular plunge in temperatures can cast uncertainty on whether Earth is warming.
“Amazing how big this system is,” Trump tweeted. “Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming right now!” __ __ Associated Press reporters Bob Salsberg in Boston, Deepti Hajela in New York, and Lisa Rathke in Montpelier contributed to this story. Associated Press reporters Bob Salsberg in Boston, Deepti Hajela in New York, and Lisa Rathke in Montpelier contributed to this story.
Virtually every one of the world’s commercial airports and leading destinations currently remain vulnerable to criminal abuse or ‘rogue’ operation of drone technology, notwithstanding the shock wake-up call from the chaos at London’s Gatwick Airport last month before Christmas and more recently at London Heathrow, as well as last week’s exploding drone incident in Yemen.
This warning is because there remains very low awareness among the business community of the extraordinary pace at which drone technology is evolving… and this makes staying ahead of the threat posed by those who would abuse this technology challenging, for even the most competent of businesses and management teams.
The commercial air drone market is currently still like the Wild West… exciting, and representing unprecedented economic opportunity for companies and organizations which are fast adopting this exceptional technology. However, there will always be those who would flaunt laws and regulation to cause maximum disruption around the world. This particularly impacts on more vulnerable sectors such as airports, financial centers, energy facilities, stadiums and concert venues, etc, which require tailored defense strategies to protect against what is a new and real security challenge.
The British Armed Forces have been world leaders in the use of drone technology, for both offense and defense, for many years, long before the recent adoption by the business world, and it is their techniques which are now being applied, particularly in counter-drone strategies, which utilize an ever-evolving range of advanced technologies to detect, track, identify and defeat the threat posed by those who would abuse air drone technology for nefarious means.
There are literally hundreds of counter-drone products and manufacturers worldwide and the market is expanding on a daily basis, making it extremely difficult to keep track… which is one reason why the rapid, often knee-jerk adoption of such technology in the face of media pressure, while sometimes providing a short-term fix, can often be a long term error of judgement and, in isolation of appropriate policies and procedures, is rarely effective.
Our counter-drone team, primarily ex-military, continually analyze this market to identify those systems which will be of most appropriate use to our clients in the application of both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ effect counter-drone measures. Soft effect measures include intelligence-led threat identification, robust airspace management with commensurate risk management policies and legal procedures. Hard measures are broken down into ‘Detect, Track and Identify’ and ‘Defeat’, which are subject to strict usage restrictions.
One of the challenges for our clients in all sectors is the need to adopt drone technology always within a disciplined strategy which supports the organization, ensures security and also ‘future proofs’ what is put in place. The adoption of counter-drone technology is no exception and so we would urge those organizations reacting to recent events to take a breath and think strategically.
As far as criminals or ‘rogue’ drone operators are concerned, they will always exist… but their task will be made much more difficult by an increasingly informed business community, the putting in place of more sophisticated counter-drone strategies, the implementation of the forthcoming ‘Drone Bill’ within the UK and the adoption of the new aerial drone standards, which were launched for public and peer group consultation in November 2018 by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). Their deadline for public responses on this consultation is January 21, 2019.
About the author
Robert Garbett is founder and chief executive of Drone Major Group, a global drone and counter-drone consultancy, convenor of the ISO Working Group responsible for global drone standards, and chairman of the BSI Committee for UK Drone Standards. He is the only authority to be advising on standards in Britain, Europe and worldwide, a leading consultant within the global drone industry, and an advocate on the potential of drone technology to transform economies.
Transportation Trades Department’s Larry Willis said politicians in Washington are the ones who need to find a way out of the crisis. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Canceled training classes, unbought luggage scanners and delays in plane deliveries are adding to the burdens as thousands work without pay.
The government shutdown is fraying U.S. air travel in ways big and small, not just spawning long security lines at some airports but canceling some pilot training, delaying purchases of bag-scanning equipment and preventing some companies from adding new planes.
Those burdens, many invisible to the traveling public, are causing an enormous strain for the aviation system, which is expected to see a spike in passenger traffic during this three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. And they come as thousands of TSA agents, air traffic controllers and aircraft inspectors are working without pay, posing long-term worries about agencies’ ability to recruit and keep employees.
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“When the government does reopen, there’s going to be a lot of catch-up work that has to get done,” said Larry Willis, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, an umbrella group for dozens of transportation unions, including pilots and flight attendants.
Absences by Transportation Security Administration screeners have been running at double the typical rate. The Federal Aviation Administration has postponed certifications for new drone pilots and delayed a major conference on drones. The National Transportation Safety Board, tasked with investigating transportation accidents, has been left with a skeleton crew and has opted not to launch investigators to 14 recent accidents, including 10 aviation incidents that killed 16 people.
Some current and former lawmakers have speculated that the aviation system could reach a breaking point — perhaps a strike that halts air traffic — that would pressure Congress and the White House to settle their differences. “If TSA agents don’t go to work, the shutdown is over tomorrow,” Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester told reporters this week. “I’m not advocating they do that, but you stop air traffic and this thing’s over with.”
But a strike is not about to happen, say the unions representing TSA screeners, air traffic controllers and other critical aviation workers, which note that it would be illegal for them to walk off the job.
On the other hand, nothing prevents unpaid employees from quitting outright. Already, many are simply calling in absent because they cannot afford to work without pay.
TSA estimates more than 8 million people will fly over the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend — a 10.8 percent increase over last year. Meanwhile, about 6.4 percent of the agency’s baggage screeners called out absent from work Thursday, compared with 3.8 percent for the same day in 2018.
Some agencies are trying to find ways to lessen the damage. TSA, for instance, has scraped together some money for its unpaid employees, but it’s a drop in the bucket — one day of missed pay out of almost 30, plus a $500 bonus. The FAA has also responded to worries about airline safety by bringing back in about 2,200 of its 3,000 previously furloughed safety inspectors, though it is not paying them.
Agencies are also deferring purchases and canceling training for their workers, expenses they’ll eventually have to make up. TSA said this week that it had canceled advanced training classes for screeners and other front-line employees, and it has postponed buying new 3D scanners.
The repercussions from the funding lapse are being felt throughout the aviation industry. Flight schools could be faced with canceling classes if their instructors can’t be recertified, the National Air Transportation Association wrote in an alert to members.
“Companies that provide training for pilots require regular authorizations by the FAA to issue certificates; these training providers need certain qualifications which they may lose due to the shutdown, and this could halt pilot training and may prevent aircraft from having the necessary crews to operate,” the association said.
The academy where air traffic controllers are trained is also halting classes, which could mean delays in replacing retiring controllers.
The shutdown is also hitting aviation manufacturers, including Airbus and Embraer, which haven’t been able to deliver planes to airlines. In addition, corporate jet operator NetJets hasn’t been able to add new aircraft to its fleet, Bloomberg reported.
NATA said one of its member companies has two aircraft stranded in Canada, where they were being painted and can’t get FAA approval to be flown back to the United States. Another, working with a medical client, recently purchased two Cessna CJ3+ planes but can’t get the FAA to sign off on flying them.
“According to the member company, the aircraft, once flying, will save at least one life almost every time they fly. The shutdown is preventing these aircraft from entering service and saving lives,” NATA wrote.
The FAA has also stopped processing non-routine aircraft registrations, leaving those that need more than a rubber stamp to sit idle. And the drone industry has complained that the shutdown is hampering rulemakings and preventing FAA from granting waivers.
The sharpest reaction to the shutdown so far has come from the unions representing TSA agents and air traffic controllers, which have sued the government to demand relief for their members.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA baggage screeners, sought damages including pay of $14.50 an hour for the first 40 hours of work, plus overtime, for every employee forced to work during the shutdown. That could amount to millions of dollars owed for the first missed pay period alone, said Heidi Burakiewicz, the attorney representing the union.
AFGE won a similar suit filed after a 2013 government shutdown, though the case has been tied up in courts, delaying payments.
“I really think that the next case is going to move much faster because the question of whether the government is liable has already been litigated and shouldn’t have to be relitigated,” Burakiewicz said. “The government has a road map. They had to figure out how to do this once. They shouldn’t have to do it again.”
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has also filed suit, accusing the government of withholding controllers’ “hard-earned compensation without the requisite due process.” A federal judge turned down NATCA’s demand for a temporary restraining order this week, but a hearing on the union’s motion for a preliminary injunction has been set for Jan. 31.
Absent any immediate solutions to the shutdown, some current and former lawmakers have speculated that TSA agents and air traffic controllers are uniquely positioned to get Washington’s attention — if they choose to.
Former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) wrote in a recent op-ed that “Americans would be rightly outraged” if airport security lanes grew longer because TSA agents just stopped working, and predicted that public complaints to lawmakers and President Donald Trump would probably end the stalemate.
House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) agreed, telling POLITICO that “a significant absence” of agents “would create a serious crisis for the flying public that could very well put significant pressure on a lot of members of Congress.”
But the Transportation Trades Department’s Willis said politicians in Washington are the ones who need to find a way out of the crisis.
“The responsibility to address the shutdown does not lie with federal workers taking actions that are contrary to law,” Willis said. “It is ultimately up to our elected leaders, and up to the president, who has significant responsibility here to resolve this issue and to reopen the federal government.”
AFGE has been careful to avoid issuing any statements that appear to encourage a strike. In its media notice for a rally on Thursday, the union noted that “participation is not in any official agency capacity.”
They have good reason to be reluctant to walk off the job. A series of laws bars federal workers from organizing strikes or boycotts, and former President Ronald Reagan fired air traffic controllers who went on strike in 1981.
“You learn from the lessons of the past,” NATCA President Paul Rinaldi told POLITICO.
New destinations on Air France’s summer schedule and a new biofuel service from Finnair lead this week’s air travel news.
In flight news this week, Air France announced its schedule for the upcoming summer peak season in July and August, which will include four new destinations for the airline: Heraklion (Crete, Greece), Palermo (Sicily, Italy), Olbia (Sardinia, Italy) and Split (Croatia) on departure from Paris-Charles de Gaulle. (The Obi flights will be operated by the airline’s HOP! Air France subsidiary.)
All of the new flights will be out of Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Additionally, Air France will continue the operation of flights from the 2018 summer season on departure from Paris-Charles de Gaulle to the following four destinations: Cagliari (also operated by HOP!), Dubrovnik, Ibiza and Bari.
Luxury Travel Advisor’s ULTRA Summit
In sustainable travel news, this week Finnair announced a new program that will allow customers to offset the carbon dioxide (C02) emissions of their flights either by supporting a CO2 emissions reduction project or by purchasing biofuel flights. The new program is the result of a partnership between Finnair and NEFCO, a financial institution established by Nordic Governments to finance sustainable green growth and climate projects. The offset changes will help fund an emissions reduction project identified by NEFCO in Mozambique, enabling the use of more efficient cooking stoves, which, in turn, reduce wood charcoal consumption and deforestation.
Finnair customers can choose to support a CO2 emissions reduction project by making offset payments of one euro for a return flight within Finland, two euros for a return flight within Europe, and six euros for a return intercontinental flight. The charges are based on the average emissions and costs of reducing a CO2 ton within the project. The payments are transferred to the project in full through NEFCO. Finnair also offsets the CO2 emissions of its own personnel’s duty travel through the CO2 emissions reduction project, the airline said.
Global Air Travel Services Category – Procurement Market Intelligence Report. (Graphic: Business Wire)
The flourishing business sectors are creating a huge demand for outbound and inbound flights across the globe that are favoring the category spend momentum. To improve the accessibility of middle-income groups, leading aviation companies are introducing low-cost long-haul flights which are exerting an impetus to the global market of air travel services.
of this market intelligence report to know more about the spend growth potential in different regions.
The corporate sector in the US is exhibiting high demand for business charter flights which is expected to contribute to the category growth. Introduction of cost-effective round trips from the US to other major Asian cities is driving the demand for outbound air travel in the region. The growing frequency of outbound flight travels in APAC is resulting in an incremental category spend in the region. This frequency is attributed to the significant projects outsourced to this region from some of the leading manufacturing hubs stationed in countries like the US, UK, and Germany.
This air travel services procurement research report offers a comprehensive analysis of the global and regional spend dynamics and its impact on the overall pricing scenario. In this procurement market intelligence report, the category spend is analyzed from the perspective of the buyers and the suppliers.
of this market intelligence report to get information that is tailored to your every requirement.
“ Ensuring transparency on the pricing policies offered by the services providers will help avoid price fluctuations, identify any hidden charge, fines, penalties, and also aid in understanding the billing and payment cycles,” says SpendEdge procurement expert Sumit Yadav.
This air travel services procurement research report has estimated the following factors to influence the category growth in the coming years:
Growing interconnectedness of global businesses will drive market growth
Volatility in fuel prices poses significant risks to the market
Purchase the here!
SpendEdge’s procurement market intelligence reports for the travel and entertainment category provide detailed supply market forecasts and cost drivers that impact category growth. Such information will help procurement managers as well as the suppliers to determine the total cost of ownership and change their procurement strategies accordingly. Additionally, SpendEdge’s reports provide category management insights and information on the procurement best practices for the category.
Report scope snapshot: Air travel services
Category pricing insights
Pricing outlook
Total cost of ownership analysis
Supplier cost structure
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Cost-Saving Opportunities
Supplier-side levers
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Quantifying cost savings by negotiation strategies
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Competitiveness index for suppliers
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With discussions for resolving the partial federal government shutdown seemingly at an impasse, some are concerned about the shutdown’s impact on two components of the air travel system: air traffic control and airport security.
The best way to prevent negative impacts would be to reduce the federal role in both of these areas. Doing so would also bring additional benefits.
The Department of Transportation’s air traffic control system and the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration are both caught up in the shutdown due to spending bills for their respective departments not yet having been signed into law.
While most
shutdown discussion revolves around casting blame and creative ways to prevent shutdowns from taking place, Americans should instead consider
whether the federal government should be responsible for so many aspects of
day-to-day life.
In the case of air traffic control, Americans are shortchanged by a system that is bureaucratic and wildly out of date. This has meant higher costs and less functionality for airlines, which in turn leads to higher prices and more delays for passengers.
A positive example lies to the north. Canada’s air traffic control system, which covers a similarly large amount of territory, was turned over to a private nonprofit in 1996. The result has been lower costs and faster technological development.
If Canada
could manage that transition two decades ago, surely America can do the same
today.
It’s understandable that changes were made in an attempt to increase airport security in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But private-sector screeners can handle the task of seeking to prevent weapons and explosives from being brought on board airplanes just as well as unionized federal employees.
Private providers have better incentives and stronger accountability, making them preferable to government providers in most cases. Handing over some tasks to private providers would allow the TSA to focus on regulation and oversight, rather than implementation.
As with air traffic control, we can look to the positive experience that other nations have had in privatizing airport screening. In Canada, privatized screenings cost 15 percent less per passenger compared with those in the U.S.
The Heritage Foundation’s “Blueprint for Balance” estimates that privatization would produce $465 million in savings in 2019, with additional gains for passengers in the form of lower security fees.
The federal government attempts to do far too many things. Reducing the power of Washington would make the nation less dependent on politicians for the provision of services like air traffic control and airport security.
Given the current mess in Washington, the notion of relying on politicians less seems like a very good idea.
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BOSTON – Air traffic safety officials are waving red flags at Boston Logan International Airport. After 28 days of the government shutdown, safety experts are warning it is more dangerous to fly now than before the shutdown began.
Air traffic controller Mick Devine had a warning that should scare anyone flying out of Logan.
“It is not as safe to fly as it was four weeks ago and it’s getting exponentially worse the longer the shutdown goes on,” said Devine.
Devine is one of 20,000 air traffic controllers working without pay and struggling to get by.
Sen. Ed Markey held a news conference Friday with Logan’s FAA and TSA safety workers. Markey said every day during the shutdown, around six percent of TSA workers, or 2,000 workers, call out from work.
Logan officials are worried the increase in absences will lead to more mistakes at the airport.
“As a result of his shutdown, President Trump is jeopardizing air travel safety and the financial safety of thousands of hardworking government employees,” said Markey.
Greg Clark is a professional aviation safety specialist. With no end to the shutdown in sight, Clark says it’s as easy as going to your bank or bill collector for help.
“Morale is at an all-time low and stress is at an all-time high,” said Clark. “When they ask, well how long do you need? What do we tell them? They say five days? That doesn’t help. It’s already been 28 days now.”
A recent public opinion poll found Americans are not happy about the shutdown. According to a PBS Newshour/Marist poll, seven in ten Americans feel that shutting down the government in order to reach an agreement on policy is a bad strategy.
Steps are being taken to make air travel for disabled passengers and their equipment easier after a year of horror stories in the press where people and their wheelchairs have been mistreated by airlines.
A new film has been launched so people considering flying
with their powerchair can see exactly what is involved when taking a flight.
The film, produced by UK charity, Queen Elizabeth’s
Foundation for Disabled People (QEF), shows every stage of the journey, from
the preparation required, through check-in, security, boarding, in-flight and
landing, as well as the assistance available.
QEF developed ‘Your Guide to Flying with a Disability’ with the Civil Aviation Authority and the airline and airport industry, with the aim of providing disabled people with the information they are missing, so they can make informed decisions and feel confident about taking a flight.
This film has been created in response to a growing need,
highlighted by the numerous high-profile media stories throughout 2018 and
reports that show that in 2017 there were 3m requests made for assistance at UK
airports.
These requests are increasing at almost double the rate of
general passenger growth.
QEF’s Accessible Aviation expert, Graham Race, said: “Our
QEF Tryb4uFly service has already proven invaluable to many disabled people
that have been anxious about taking a flight, but there has been a significant
increase in demand for information.
“British Airways have already confirmed that they will make
the film available to all customers who book wheelchair assistance.”
Paul Smith, director at the Civil Aviation Authority, added: “It is a
priority for the UK Civil Aviation Authority to continue to improve the
accessibility of air travel.
“As it shows every stage of a journey by air for a powered
wheelchair user, we hope the film will answer many of the questions people
currently have about flying as a wheelchair passenger, and increase the confidence
to fly.”
In December, proposals for a new charter for airlines and
airports were put forward by ministers to tackle the issue of damaged
wheelchairs during transit.
If the plans come to fruition it would mean the £2,000 limit
on payouts for damaged wheelchairs would be removed.
