One of Texas’ busiest airports is missing half its air traffic controllers, rep warns
.jpg "A Texas congressman warned that Austin’s airport is operating with half of the needed air traffic controllers on staff.")
As investigators look into the causes of the deadly plane collision in Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, warned that the number of air traffic control staff at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is down significantly and poses a risk to safety for travelers.
“We’ve gone months with about half of the number of air traffic controllers that the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) says we should have here,” Doggett told CBS Austin. “And so those who are there are under mandatory overtime, long, stressful hours, overworked and understaffed.”
He added to KXAN: “Everyone who flies in and out of our airport is at risk if we can’t increase the margin of safety.”
McClatchy News reached out to the FAA to ask about staffing issues at the airport but did not immediately receive a response.
The comment came one day after an American Airlines plane flying from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., collided with a U.S. Army helicopter, killing 67 people.
An FAA report on the deadly crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport said staffing at the control tower was “not normal” the night of Jan. 29, NBC News reported.
Doggett says there have been multiple near crashes at the Austin airport since 2022. Most recently, an American Airlines jet and a Cessna plane nearly crashed in October, according to a news release from the representative’s office.
The congressman criticized President Donald Trump’s response to the Washington, D.C., crash where the president attacked diversity, equity and inclusion practices and, without evidence, suggested they could be the cause of the collision.
Trump defended his statements as “common sense” while conceding he did not know what caused the crash. But, he added, “it just could have been.”
Doggett also said Trump has not prioritized nominating an FAA administrator amid frozen federal hiring.
“Not until after last night’s crash has he belatedly named only a Temporary FAA Administrator,” Doggett said. “He needs to stop blaming others, look in the mirror, and start helping us prevent another mid-air collision.”
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is the fourth busiest airport in Texas, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Air travel remains the safest mode of travel in the U.S., according to Department of Transportation statistics. In 2022, for example, air travelers were injured at a rate of .007 for every 100 million miles, while cars and trucks averaged 42 injuries for every 100 million miles.
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 1:03 PM with the headline "One of Texas’ busiest airports is missing half its air traffic controllers, rep warns."
