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The US Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) decision to cut flights across 40 major airports during the government shutdown earlier this year was necessary to protect the safety of the flying public, the head of agency told lawmakers.FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, in testimony prepared for a hearing held on Tuesday by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s aviation subcommittee, cited the need to identify risks sooner following January’s deadly midair collision between an American Airlines Group Inc passenger jet and a US Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.“I am confident that decreasing operations during an uncertain and stressful time was the right decision on behalf of the flying public and the United States,” he said in a letter to House and Senate lawmakers on Monday evening that was seen by Bloomberg.Bedford sent the letter in response to an inquiry Democrats on the House transportation committee — led by Ranking Member Rick Larsen — sent to Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy last month seeking more information on the flight cut decision.“The connection between controller workload, system demand and operational risk was unmistakable,” Bedford added during Tuesday’s hearing.The hearing is Bedford’s first appearance before Congress since he was confirmed to lead the FAA. Prior to joining the regulator, he ran regional airline Republic Airways Holdings for more than 25 years.The FAA’s flight cut order during the shutdown required airlines to reduce capacity at the 40 airports by as much as 10%, exacerbating US flight disruptions and hitting carriers’ finances after a bruising year.The capacity reduction rate only reached 6% before Congress reached a deal to end the shutdown. The agency froze the rate at that level on November 12 and then rolled back the policy in the days after.The FAA and Transportation Department have said that they were seeing a record level of flight disruptions stemming from controller absences. They also said other data, including voluntary safety disclosure reports from pilots, indicated signs of strain on the system.The government hasn’t provided the full risk assessment it conducted.In the Monday letter, Bedford said the FAA determined traditional mitigation measures, such as slowing traffic in and out of airports, were no longer sufficient, given the “extraordinary” staffing issues the agency was seeing during the shutdown.In his prepared remarks for Tuesday’s hearing, Bedford also discussed the FAA’s work to overhaul its aging air traffic system — an effort that gained momentum after the deadly midair collision near Washington and a spate of technology outages affecting Newark Liberty International Airport.Congress already provided the agency with $12.5bn for the project, but Bedford and Duffy have said they need an additional $20bn.The government recently awarded Peraton Inc, a national security and technology company owned by private equity firm Veritas Capital, a contract to serve as the “prime integrator” overseeing the project, which will include upgrades to telecommunications systems and radar equipment.The FAA has already begun the modernisation work, including transitioning more than one-third of copper wire to new fibre optic lines, Bedford said.“These improvements will enable the Integrator to hit the ground running to create a more reliable, resilient infrastructure and serve as the foundation for the future National Airspace System,” the administrator said.When asked why the FAA chose Peraton over a joint bid from Parsons Corp and IBM Corp, Bedford said Peraton had unique expertise upgrading the telecommunications systems of the Defense Department and Nasa. “Peraton brought a competency that is relevant to what we need.”He said neither President Donald Trump nor Duffy interfered in the selection process and added that Trump actually demanded a $200mn reduction in Peraton’s fee.Bedford also told Congress the FAA plans to continue keeping a close eye on Boeing Co after a door-sized panel blew off one of its 737 Max jets in early 2024. The planemaker has been rebounding from the incident, which exposed quality lapses in its factories.Boeing recently won the regulator’s approval to raise production of the Max beyond a cap the FAA put in place after the midair blowout.“We continue to maintain our oversight of aerospace manufacturers, including Boeing, and how the company manages design, manufacturing, and quality across its programmes,” Bedford said in his prepared testimony. “We also continue to keep a close watch on the production system itself.” 

Days before US government-mandated flight cuts went into effect across domestic carriers, some airline executives privately pressed for more information on whether the safety data justified the Trump administration’s measures.On a November 5 call with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Bryan Bedford, some airline leaders asked if the agency was seeing risks that the carriers might not have been aware of, according to people familiar with the matter.Bedford, a former aviation executive, shot down any concerns over a plan to cut 10% of flights across 40 major airports, saying it was the FAA’s decision — not airlines’ — and that the reductions weren’t negotiable, said the people, who weren’t authorised to speak publicly on the discussions.What ensued was an injection of chaos into an already strained US airline network.The flight restrictions, since compounded by foul weather and other system constraints, have forced carriers to cancel thousands of flights in recent days. The impact is expected to reverberate even after lawmakers forged a pact to work toward an end to the longest government shutdown in US history.Although the Senate passed a temporary funding measure on Monday that may soon resolve the 41-day government shutdown, it’s unclear how quickly any deal would translate into a substantial easing of the disruptions.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said the government won’t reverse its flight cuts until air traffic controllers who haven’t been showing up to work are back at their facilities.More than 5mn airline passengers have been affected since the shutdown started, according to Airlines for America, a trade group representing the largest carriers.Alaska Air Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Minicucci was among the most vocal in asking for more data to justify the need for the cuts, the people said. Smaller airlines have had a harder time absorbing the reductions than larger carriers, which tend to have more flexibility in their networks.In many cases, the restrictions have hit regional flights or less-critical routes.To be sure, people familiar with the November 5 call said many of the airline executives were willing to accommodate the orders because they were already seeing an uptick of flight disruptions due to air traffic controller shortages. The safety risks were heightened, given the increased spotlight on dangerous near-misses and deadly crashes earlier this year.That included a midair collision between an American Airlines Group regional jet and a US Army helicopter in January, which resulted in safety investigators and lawmakers lambasting the FAA for not using their data more proactively to respond to risks in the airspace around Washington.Many of the executives were also being careful: Politically, speaking out against a directive from President Donald Trump could draw an unwanted rebuke or pressure from the White House.A representative for Alaska Air confirmed the airline participated in the call but disputed Bloomberg’s characterisation of its comments, without elaborating. The company referred further questions to Airlines for America, which said “safety is always our shared top priority, and Americans should have increased confidence in our airspace because the FAA has taken these measures,” according to a statement from CEO Chris Sununu.“As our safety regulator, when the FAA says they have concerns heading into a busy travel period like Thanksgiving, airlines will do whatever is necessary to ensure the system can continue to operate safely,” said Sununu, the former Republican governor of New Hampshire.Representatives for Southwest Airlines Co. and JetBlue Airways Corp didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. American, Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Airlines Holdings Inc. declined to comment.Safety isn’t something the Transportation Department bargains over, a spokesperson for the department said. It trusts the non-political safety team at the FAA to put the American people first, the representative said.Bedford and Duffy have said the flight cuts are intended to alleviate strain on air traffic controllers during the shutdown.Since the impasse over funding shuttered some federal operations, there has been an increase in controller staffing shortages at facilities across the country, resulting in delays at major airports, including those serving the New York area, Washington, Dallas and Atlanta.Supporters have praised the FAA and Transportation Department for acting quickly to address a growing safety issue.Critics have questioned Duffy’s decision to withhold the safety data used to inform the cuts, and whether the decision was, to some degree, part of efforts to pressure Democrats to forge a deal to end the shutdown.

Air travel disruptions in the United States worsened as the federal government shutdown entered its 27th day, with nearly 7,000 flights delayed nationwide on Monday due to a growing shortage of air traffic controllers.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported staffing shortages that necessitated ground delay programs, affecting operations at multiple airports.Around 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers have been working without pay amid the budget deadlock between Republican President Donald Trump and Democrats in Congress, which led to the government shutdown.A US Department of Transportation official said that 44 percent of the delays were attributed to the shortage of air traffic controllers, a sharp rise from the usual 5 percent.The mounting flight delays and cancellations have deepened public frustration and intensified scrutiny of the shutdown’s impact, increasing pressure on lawmakers to resolve the political impasse.The FAA is currently short about 3,500 air traffic controllers, many of whom were already working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks before the shutdown began.During the previous 35-day government shutdown in 2019, rising absenteeism among unpaid air traffic controllers and TSA officers led to longer wait times at airport checkpoints and further slowed air travel across the country.