United Airlines Alert, April 19
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has informed that, beginning this Sunday, it intends to furlough air traffic controllers and related FAA employees as part of the federal government's budget sequestration. Further, the FAA has advised these sequestration-related furloughs will likely have a significant impact on operations at all airlines, resulting in major delays across the nation's air traffic system. Industry-wide, the FAA’s plan could delay one out of every three people who fly every day, and the delays could be lengthy.
The FAA expects to delay more than 6,700 daily flights by implementing ground-delay programs or other traffic management initiatives every single day, including limiting the number of aircraft operations per hour.