Staffing Issues At LaGuardia Caused Delays At Philadelphia International Airport
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS/AP) -- Staffing issues at LaGuardia Airport in New York City caused delays at Philadelphia International Airport on Friday.
"We have experienced a slight increase in sick leave at two air traffic control facilities affecting New York and Florida. As with severe storms, we will adjust operations to a safe rate to match available controller resources," the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, according to CBS New York. "We've mitigated the impact by augmenting staffing, rerouting traffic, and increasing spacing between aircraft as needed. The results have been minimal impacts to efficiency while maintaining consistent levels of safety in the national airspace system. The public can monitor air traffic at fly.faa.gov and they should check with airline carriers for more information."
The FAA says departure delays were initially around 1 hour and 14 minutes at PHL, but a majority of flights are now operating on time.
CBS News' Kris Van Cleave reports the staffing issues are likely due to the federal government shutdown.
There were also delays at Newark Liberty International Airport and Tampa International Airport.
The staffing problems were at air traffic centers in Jacksonville, Florida and a Washington D.C. center that controls high-altitude air traffic over seven states.
"The results have been minimal impacts to efficiency while maintaining consistent levels of safety in the national airspace system," Martin said in an emailed statement.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
