FAA warns sequestration will lead to long flight delays by April | ATWOnline
Just read this article on ATW stating that delays at airports could be "up to 90 minutes" because of the measures they will implement to reduce their operating costs. Troublesome, perhaps, worrying, maybe not. That is up until this bit though:
The FAA spending reductions will begin to take effect in April, when the “vast majority” of the agency’s 47,000 employees will be furloughed for 1-2 days per two-week pay period, the officials said. They added that FAA plans to close more than 100 ATC towers at smaller airports and will “reduce preventative maintenance and equipment provisioning and support for all [national airspace] equipment.”
Beg you pardon?
Because of the cuts, FAA “may reduce the efficiency of the national airspace in order to maintain the highest safety standards,” LaHood and Huerta wrote.
Beg you pardon?
How exactly is reducing efficiency of
anything, really, a mean to "maintain the highest safety standard"?
They either picked a poor set of words or they are just completely out of their minds. I think most will choose the latter...