JetBlue criticized federal officials as the carrier said a shortage of air-traffic controllers would force it to cut 10% of its departures from the New York City area during the busy summer travel season.

The pullback will have a “pretty significant financial impact” on JetBlue in the second and possibly third quarters, President Joanna Geraghty said on a conference call Tuesday to discuss earnings results. The company warned last month of possible flight cuts after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration asked airlines to trim flying at some of the nation’s busiest airports.

“We’re obviously very concerned about New York City for the summer,” Geraghty said. “The FAA continues to be significantly understaffed. This is a continuing issue and frankly it’s only getting worse this summer.”

The reductions take effect in June at John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports in New York, and at Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, said a spokesman for JetBlue. The airline, which is based in Long Island City, New York, didn’t specify how it could affect earnings, but said the effect on flying capacity and revenue would be less than the 10% cut in departures.

The issue threatens to bring a repeat of last summer’s woes, when travelers suffered through flight delays and cancellations as high demand filled aircraft. About 25% of flights by major U.S. carriers were delayed last summer for an average 49 minutes, and another 1.9% were canceled, according to data from FlightAware.

A shortage of air-traffic controllers in New York has an outsized impact on the total U.S. aviation system, with a high percentage of aircraft flying into or through the region. JetBlue won’t move the flights being cut to other cities, instead using the extra crews and aircraft as reserves to help offset delays it expects to be linked to air-traffic control staffing issues across the country.

“We’re very prepared for this summer,” Geraghty said. “Most airlines are. Unfortunately, the FAA is not.”

The FAA said in a statement that the purpose of the reduction is to avoid the kind of congestion that struck the system last summer. It’s continuing to work with airlines on other steps to limit delays, such as sending planes over the ocean to avoid crowded routes.

Even with a shortage in controllers at key air-traffic facilities in New York and elsewhere, delays last year due to staffing were less than one-tenth those due to weather and high volumes of aircraft, the agency said.

JetBlue’s own issues caused more flight delays in 2022 than FAA staffing and other causes such as weather, according to government data supplied by the airline. The carrier had 36,100 flights that were at least 15 minutes late, compared to 21,752 tardy flights attributed to the FAA and the air-traffic system.

The rate of airline-caused delays was the highest on record last year as the industry recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic’s impacts. In JetBlue’s case, in the years before the pandemic it generally reported about the same number of self-inflicted delays as those triggered by the air-traffic system.

The problem in the New York area stems from air-traffic controller staffing at the facility that guides planes into and out of the three major commercial airports.

It currently has 129 fully trained controllers, which is 57% of its staffing goal, Paul Rinaldi, an industry consultant who formerly served as president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union, said in a briefing Tuesday. Despite multiple efforts to boost staffing there, the level has fallen slightly below 2014, he said.

(c) 2023, Bloomberg · Mary Schlangenstein, Alan Levin

Source: Matzav