The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a list of federal contract towers that will be shut down due to budget constraints caused by sequestration. These towers typically operate in smaller airports, providing air traffic control to private sector flights at vision flight rule (VFR) airports. These systems save the FAA money while significantly improving the safety at the VFR airports.
Considering how busy VFR airports are, it seems inconceivable that the FAA would ever consider closing these towers, but the closures were announced March 22. They will be phased in, starting this week. Here’s a complete list of affected towers.
Tower closures by the numbers:
- 226 — Airports in federal contract tower program
- 25 — Percentage of air traffic controlled by federal contract towers
- 149 — Number of air traffic control towers being shutdown
- 4/7 — Date the closures will begin
- 750-1,100 — Number of controllers and supervisors expected to lose jobs
- $600 million — Amount FAA has to trim from budget due to sequestration
Some of these towers control traffic for cargo airplanes, and others serve as overflow airports for regional hubs. It will be a setback for general aviation to lose this many towers in such a short period of time.
What are your thoughts about this situation?