Many "reliever airports" now in need of their own relief
What used to be a well-kept travel secret for South Florida-bound travelers hoping to avoid the usually-congested Miami International Airport was to instead fly into either the Palm Beach International (PBI) or Fort Lauderdale (FLL) Airports. Then came the busy tourist season of late Fall 2004 through early Spring 2005, when PBI and FLL ranked first and second nationally in terms of percentage of flights delayed during the first quarter of this year. FLL traffic grew a staggering eight percent during that period. Suddenly, the so-called “reliever” airports of the region are in need of their own reliever airport.
“That is absolutely accurate,” says Jim Marinitti, facility representative for Miami Tower/TRACON, where the job of funneling flights into all three of South Florida’s major airports has grown increasingly maddening. “It is just crazy. Fort Lauderdale, especially, has roared back to pre-9/11 traffic levels.”
Battles over how to expand the capacity of FLL have started to rage, with local politicians – cognizant of the plentiful tourist dollars at stake – on one side, local neighborhoods on another, and the airport officials and users on yet another. As for the controllers, Marinitti says, “We aren’t too concerned about who wins the political battles, but certainly, if there’s concrete to be gained out of the process, we want to use it. It’s badly needed.”
With another very busy winter travel season already begun, the FAA has attempted to mitigate the congestion with an October implementation of its Florida Airspace Optimization Project, which increases the routes aircraft can fly into and out of the busy South Florida airports. But Miami TRACON controllers, who will have the daunting task of merging all of the routes into the approach paths for the airports, are already on record as opposing the project, deeming it unwise. Asserting that the complexity of the Miami airspace makes the plan unworkable and it is a major safety problem, they have stated publicly that they refuse to place system users or the flying public at risk.
Already short 16 controllers from its authorized total, the facility needs more controllers, not added problems. “There’s already lots of pressure and it goes up every day,” Marinitti comments. “You have the staffing issue, mixed with the increase in traffic. Now, for the first time in many years, I think you’re going to see delays into Miami, and Fort Lauderdale will continue to have delays.”
Chicago is no stranger to congestion, of course, but Midway International Airport, the smaller of the city’s two major airports, has become a magnet for both carriers and passengers wanting to avoid O’Hare. A major expansion of the airport increased gates and drew the interest of Southwest Airlines into expanding its operation there. Southwest currently has 200 daily operations at Midway, and aims to one day reach 250 operations per day. “Midway has grown,” says Facility Representative Ron Adamski, a three-year veteran of the tower. “The south suburbs of Chicago have grown immensely. The more growth to the south and west, the more people are drawn in, and then the airlines adding destinations makes things busier. If this airport were located in a city other than Chicago, it would be considered a major airport.”
Understaffing is starting to emerge as a major issue in the tower. The facility is authorized to have 28 controllers on board; currently, only 22 certified professional controllers and three trainees are on staff. Five controllers are eligible to retire by the end of this year, and 12 more by the end of 2007. “There was a time recently when we had a lot of denied vacation time, but it has settled down a bit,” Adamski says.
Where things have most certainly not settled down is Teterboro Tower in New Jersey, near New York City. Before former Facility Representative Steven Franzen left office, he watched his staffing gradually shrink while traffic rose to an all-time high for Teterboro, formerly categorized as a “reliever” facility for New York air congestion. While authorized to have 26 controllers, Teterboro currently has only 20 on board.
“Here, the FAA is guilty of direct and malicious disregard for public safety, as well as even further disregard toward the morale and well-being of the workforce,” Franzen says. “The manager is not authorizing overtime to cover shifts that are short. As a result, there have been numerous occurrences of controllers working well over two hours on position without a break.”
Clearly, as these and other reliever airports become major airports, controllers trying to keep up are finding it a much more challenging job than ever.
