WASHINGTON Record-breaking numbers are likely to tumble this week, when many millions of Americans are set to take to the skies to celebrate Thanksgiving.
The yearly rush of holiday tourists will test the U.S. aviation system that is struggling to meet demand. Federal regulators insist that the system is robust and prepared.
“This year, we’re witnessing more passengers flying than ever before, with less cancellations than we’ve experienced in recent years,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke at the press conference earlier on Monday.
The Transportation Security Administration is predicting that it will check around 30 million individuals in a 12-day period which began last Friday.
“We’re all set to leave,” TSA deputy administrator Holly Canevari said at a conference for the travel industry held in Washington, D.C. last week. “I believe that the Sunday following Thanksgiving will be the record-breaking day” for one day, she said.
The Federal Aviation Administration is expecting more than 50,000 flights on Wednesday, just.
“While we aren’t in control of the weather however, we’re doing everything within our power to ensure that flights remain safe and keep cancellations as well as delays to a minimum during holiday season,” said Mike Whitaker who was appointed Administrator of the FAA appointed approved unanimously by the Senate in late June..
The FAA responds to a threatening safety alert
Whitaker faces deep worries about his safety in his first days in the position. A safety review board independent of the FAA established by the FAA has demanded “urgent intervention” to stop crashes in planes following a string of near-misses on runways across the nation this year.
Panel’s 52-page document that was released last week, has raised a lot of concerns over the lack in air traffic control officers and outdated equipment that is “rendering the current safety standards unsustainable.”
Whitaker says that the FAA is pleased with the report and has already announced a number of new initiatives that will speed up the recruitment of air traffic control officers. These include bringing on skilled graduates directly from the aeronautical schools and universities, as well as deploying hundreds of high-resolution tower simulators across the nation to relieve some of the pressure off of the academy for training of the FAA located in Oklahoma.
It is also looking at ways to reduce the number of air traffic controllers. FAA is also studying how to decrease the rate of attrition for those who want to become air traffic controllers.
“There’s an extremely high rate of failure” at the academy for training, Whitaker told reporters on Monday. “My initial focus was in figuring out how to get these numbers to rise quickly, without cutting standards.”
Although troubling, a few of the problems identified within the independent audit are not new.
“We haven’t poured the funds we require in the funding of for the system of air traffic controllers not only this time, or the year before however for many years,” said Geoff Freeman as the chief executive officer of the U.S. Travel Association. “We have not put it on the top of our list. We’ve pushed the can further down the road in modernization efforts and are paying the price now.”
Airline attendants prepare for the rush of Christmas
Overcrowded planes and full overhead bins can make for an unpleasant holiday in the air cabin too.
“The holidays are always a in which flight attendants do a bit of hate getting up,” said Sara Nelson as President of the Association of Flight Attendants union.
“The flying is a lot harder. People aren’t experienced who are answering more questions. There are fewer people in the group,” She said. “Which can mean that people are trying to figure things out among themselves and don’t have an official from the beginning.”
Nelson states that it was once common throughout the aviation industry that flight attendants could earn more money on shifts during the holidays, but those incentives are gradually disappearing. She advises passengers to keep that in mind while flying.
Thankfully, she claims that most people do.
“The majority of passengers arrive at the doors of our aircraft with a smile in their hearts and a desire to have smooth, safe travel.”
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