Did Staff Woes Stall Laguardia Flights?

July 20, 2008— -- When all flights scheduled to fly into New York's Laguardia Airport were postponed for more than an hour Friday evening, to most travelers it might have seemed like business as usual.

But according to the air traffic controllers union, the delays were the result of an advisory issued by the Federal Aviation Administration because of understaffing in the control towers.

National Air Traffic Controllers Association spokesman Doug Church said the FAA issued an advisory Friday afternoon to airports and airport management facilities nationwide that prevented all flights from landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York from 7:40 p.m. to 8:45 p.m., due to understaffing of air traffic controllers at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control, which oversees all air traffic into New York airports and is staffed by the FAA.

The advisory can be found on the FAA's Web site.

Dean Iacopelli, air traffic controller and NATCA representative at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control, emailed ABC News a copy of an "Airport Status Information" notice he obtained also from the FAA Web site on Friday.

It read: "Due to OTHER / STAFFING, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving La Guardia Airport, New York, NY (LGA)."

FAA communications director Lynn Tierney said she was not aware of any such advisory or delay due to staffing issues, but that she would double check. She said, however, she was aware of a ground delay due to other reasons -- one in Newark due to "wind," which she said delayed Republican presidential contender John McCain's plane from Michigan, and another one due to "traffic" at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Arlene Salac, FAA spokeswoman for all eastern air traffic, said that "all delays we experienced were because of weather and volume" -- not because of inadequate staffing.

Salac confirmed that one air traffic controller scheduled to work Friday evening at Laguardia called in sick, bringing the number of controllers working that shift to eight. She said eight to 10 air traffic controllers are typically on duty at a time.

However, FAA spokeswoman Marcia Adams later told ABCNews.com that there were several advisories sent out Friday for the New York region.

"One was for staffing, and the others were for weather and other factors," Adams said.

When asked what "staffing" meant, she said there were "multiple issues -- weather, thunderstorms in the New York region" and that "not everything was attributed to staffing."

Adams said occasionally there are "sick calls" and that there is nothing unusual about it, saying "the FAA plans and adjusts for it." She said the FAA was currently carrying out an "analysis and evaluation" to see if the advisory related to "staffing" resulted in any delays.

NATCA representatives point to the delays Friday as one of the consequences of what they say are problems in the FAA, which they say is pushing out experienced air traffic controllers and hiring new inexperienced and unqualified recruits.

"This has been a chronic problem that's flared up on several occasions where they don't have anyone else to call in on overtime, and they just have to end up slowing the system down for safety," Church said.

Nearly Three Decades of Labor Disputes

The FAA and NATCA have been in a bitter contract fight since 2006, when the FAA imposed new labor and pay rules on the controllers.

According to Iacopelli, the new rules cut air traffic controllers' pay and encourage seasoned air traffic controllers to retire. For example, he said, under the current rules, air traffic controllers are not eligible for any federal pay raises. Yet, if they retire, they receive increases. This is a problem, he said, since it leaves fewer experienced controllers to train new recruits.

The dispute extends to Congress, where Iacopelli said NATCA is working to pass S.R. 1300, which would reopen FAA-union negotiations.

But the battle goes back even further, to 1981, when President Reagan fired all air traffic controllers after the PATCO strike, Tierney said.

Around 1998, she said, the union negotiated a favorable contract that air traffic controllers worked under until 2006, when the FAA imposed the new rules.

As many of the air traffic controllers who worked under those terms approach the retirement age of 56, the FAA has been trying to change the terms of that contract and recruit and train new controllers. The FAA has said it expects to replace nearly its entire workforce over the next 10 years.

NATCA says those new hiring and recruitment practices, such as those that target high school students, are irresponsible and put air travelers at risk.

"They're recruiting out of high schools -- you no longer need a college degree. ... You're sitting in a room with people who took a test in the back of a mobile home," Iacopelli said. "These are people with no work experience, who don't even know what it's like to have a job."

But Tierney said the union was trying to scare people into thinking the FAA's oversight and management of air traffic controllers was broken and that its staffing practices presented national security risks, to use that to negotiate a new contract.

"What they're [complaining] about is they're saying we're sending all these new kids to the facilities. No new kid who's not trained just goes into a facility," Tierney said.