Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at the Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee. MWC photo by Mike Leischner
MOSINEE, WI (WSAU) — Former 7th Congressional District Representative and current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy returned to his home airport on Tuesday, talking with air traffic controllers and other security personnel as the government shutdown continues to snarl air traffic.
He says the team took a thoughtful approach to slowing down air traffic, which allowed the airlines to manage their resources. “It’s better to systematically plan for it than to let chaos ensue. We wouldn’t know where the staffing shortages are. We wanted to manage the issues so airlines could plan for a reduction and have crews and planes in the right places.”
Duffy says the planned reductions have been effective, but his staff is constantly monitoring the data and will continue to make adjustments as needed. He says once the shutdown is over, he’ll take the same approach to ramping travel back up. He also remains cautiously optimistic that the effects of the slowdown will be in the rear view by the time Thanksgiving travel hits. “It depends if we have air traffic controllers coming into work. If we have the controllers showing up, I think we will be back to regular flight schedules. [Of course] I can’t control the weather or mechanical issues, but with regard to controlling the airspace we will be up and running,” said Duffy.
Duffy also shared some insight into the metrics that led to the decision to slow air traffic. Those include a lack of distance between landing planes or incursions. He says the pilots also told them about details concerning their interactions with air traffic controllers. “Pilots were [having] different experiences with controllers. They aren’t responding to me as quickly, and they seem stressed.”
Some pilots also noted that the controllers were getting “sloppy” in their interactions. “Controllers and pilots use very specific language, and the language the controllers were using was getting sloppy. All of [that] was going in the wrong direction, meaning the risk levels were going up.”
Lawmakers could vote to end the shutdown later this week. Duffy says once that happens, controllers could see a lump-sum payment within 48 hours. He also backed the President’s proposal to issue a bonus to employees who didn’t miss a shift during the shutdown, but specifics on that will need to be worked out.
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