The FAA has cancelled all employee furloughs, and the National Airspace System should be back to normal operation. The action on Saturday followed legislation rushed through Congress to allow the agency the flexibility to use judgment over where the $637 million in sequester cuts it must make will come from. Congress acted under mounting pressure from the public and the aviation industry after the cuts caused seemingly random and at times significant disruption to the system.
Although it’s difficult to say exactly how many flight delays were caused by the furloughs, there were significantly more delays than in a normal week and anecdotal evidence points to the cuts for many of them. Weather and equipment caused their normal amount of headaches but the equipment problems may have been compounded by the fact that the FAA had furloughed technicians and was only repairing essential equipment. The FAA hasn’t said how it’s going to make up the $200 million it hoped to save with the staff cuts.
