FAA understaffing leads to flight delays at Austin-Bergstrom over the weekend

AUSTIN, Texas - Federal understaffing is contributing to flight delays in Austin, and it could cause problems for your holiday travel plans.

"We need a stronger margin of safety at the Austin airport," said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin).

A ground delay was in effect at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Sunday morning. The airport says a ground delay is a program the FAA administers that slows the arrival and/or departure of an aircraft. 

It’s implemented to control air traffic volume at airports where the projected traffic demand is expected to exceed what's known as the airport's acceptance rate.

An FAA spokesperson says the decision Sunday was due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.

MORE TRAVEL NEWS

• Flight passengers can be denied boarding if they don't follow these rules, travel expert warns
• Sunday after Thanksgiving travel sets new TSA record
• What you're owed if your flight is cancelled

"There's an overall national air traffic controller shortage. But ours in Austin is worse. And the FAA has failed to prioritize Austin so that we can get more traffic controllers here," said Doggett.

Doggett called the FAA delays unacceptable and says the ground delay affected numerous flights on short notice.

Some inbound delays were as long as two-and-a-half hours and according to Flight Aware, almost 200 flights were delayed.

An FAA spokesperson says the vast majority of delays are not due to air traffic controller staffing, but rather weather and passenger volume.

Rep. Doggett says passengers at Austin-Bergstrom can expect more FAA-mandated delays during this busy holiday season.

"I mean, these things are obviously frustrating. And I feel like at this time of the year, it's pretty common that these types of delays happen," said traveler Johnny Clifford.

"Austin is growing, and I think people are just now suddenly getting that magnitude of, oh yeah, Austin is growing," said another traveler.

Doggett adds that until there is a number of adequate air traffic controllers, the FAA continues to expose AUS travelers to an inadequate margin of safety.

"We have less than half of the air traffic controllers that the Federal Aviation Administration has said we need here in Austin. I've been pressing them for more than a year to get us more air traffic controllers. Today we have fewer than we had a year ago," said Doggett.

MORE AUSTIN NEWS

• Longhorns fans looking forward to first-round College Football Playoff game
• Cold weather shelters activated in Austin for Tuesday, Dec. 10
• Oak Hill Parkway Project halfway complete, says TxDOT

The FAA says it has met its hiring goal for the past two years: in 2023 with 1,500 controllers and this year with 1,811.

Next year, it plans on hiring more than 2,000 air traffic controllers.

The FAA says it's accelerating its hiring process by moving to a year-round hiring track for experienced controllers, providing programs that will allow for immediate facility training upon graduation, quicker training processes, and outreach to high school students.

The FAA also reached out to FOX 7 Austin on Wednesday, saying in a statement:

"FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker met with Rep. Lloyd Doggett on Monday to discuss the congressman’s concerns about controller staffing, safety and flight delays at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The FAA will continue to communicate and work with the congressman."

The FAA says that Austin-Bergstrom has 33 Certified Professional Controllers and six Certified Professional Controllers in Training (CPC-ITs) with previous experience at similar facilities. Additional trainees will come on board between December and next spring.  

The FAA also shared that AUS is one of nine airports that has new Surface Awareness Initiative (SAI) systems that reportedly reduce the risk of runway incursions by improving air traffic controllers’ situational awareness.

The ground delay for Sunday has since been canceled.