LAX Flights - News Update: Congressional Sequestration Will Lead To Delays

The congressional sequester that nearly shut down the government a little over a month ago is now starting to rear its ugly head. Officials at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) are having to deal with a cut in funds for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that many believe will inevitably lead too longer delay times for flights across the country.

LAX itself will not be directly effected, as the FAA is focusing the majority of its budget cuts on furloughs of staff and the shut down of control towers at mid to lower level airports across the country. Some Southern California airports that will be affected by the cuts will include those in Santa Monica, Fullerton, Riverside, and Oxnard.

"Imagine construction on 1-10," said Mario Rodriguez, director of Long Beach Airport. "The highways in the air will go from six lanes to four lanes."

He believes it will become a basic economic principle of supply and demand. The same amount of demand for air flights will collide with a decline in, and more concentrated location of, the supply of flights throughout the nation. Rodriguez continues:

"There's only so much air traffic a controller can manage, either landing or taking off or en route," he said. "The FAA will reduce the capacity of the system based on safety for obvious reasons and based upon personnel they have available."

He's not the only one who believes these furloughs will weigh heavily on bigger airports such as LAX.

"The furloughs, implemented in response to budget cuts mandated by sequestration, could cause significant delays and inconvenience for passengers that use LAX, as well as the broader community that we're dedicated to serve," said Los Angeles World Airports spokeswoman Nancy Castles.

Not to worry, however, as the FAA has seen this possibility coming down the pipeline for quite some time. The sequestration was known to be a legitimate possibility for quite some time and the FAA was high on the list of possible budget cuts. Preparations have been discussed for awhile and are currently being enacted for a smooth transition.

"FAA employee furloughs, including air traffic controller furloughs, began Sunday," an agency official said. "The FAA will be working with the airlines and using a comprehensive set of air traffic management tools to minimize the delay impacts of lower staffing as we move into the busy summer travel season."