JetBlue Airways is preparing to cut dozens of weekly New York-area flights this spring and summer in response to a shortage of air traffic controllers, a move that will have a financial impact on the airline, the company’s CEO has said. air at CNBC. , Robin Hayes.
FDA staffing shortages and potential schedule reductions in the region continue to weigh on airlines, still stalled on their goal of increasing capacity as travel demand returns post-pandemic.
Hayes said the latest decision is particularly shocking for New York-headquartered JetBlue because the vast majority of its flights take off or land in the city or transit through its airspace.
“We have staff, we’ve already trained the pilots, we’re paying the pilots, we’ve bought planes, we’re paying for gates and slots,” Hayes said. “This is going to have a very significant financial impact on JetBlue and our customers.”
Flight cancellations and delays have increased during the peak hours of 2022, and airlines have cut their schedules to give more slack to the system. If the weather is bad or there are other challenges, disruptions tend to kick in if airlines have packed their schedules with too many flights.
Due to staffing shortages, the FDA released a new plan to help prevent a repeat of flight disruptions in 2022, reducing flight requirements by up to 10% for airline takeoff and landing rights, in order to avoid traffic jams in New York and Washington DC.
The exemptions will last from May 15 to September 15.
Many fear that the reduction in flights will lead to increasingly expensive tickets.