Duffy blamed Biden for air traffic problems. It is a decades old problem.

After a series of flight incidents, including recent disturbances at a busy airport of New Jersey, Sean Duffy, the transport secretary, blamed the earlier administration for issues that tease the Federal Aviation Administration.

“Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden did nothing to repair the system they knew it was broken,” said Mr. Duffy at a press conference on Mondayafter A technical malfunction More than 1,000 flights influenced on Newark Liberty International Airport.

Mr Duffy had the point that the Biden administration “did very little to change the status quo, in the light of countless problems,” said Robert Poole, the Director of Transport Policy at the Libertarian Reason Foundation. But Mr. Poole said that the claim that Biden officials ‘nothing’ did too broadly.

Moreover, the approach to the BIDEN administration was not unique. The federal government in multiple administrations and congresses has chosen a reactive approach to the aviation policy, often which leads to delays in modernization efforts and insufficient staff and financing.

The current state of air travel could also indicate the start of a reactionary cycle that has defined the development of the system of air travel of the Nation in the last century, “says Sean Seyer, assistant professor at the University of Kansas and author of a book about the history of American civil aviation.

FAA recognized this month That an ‘outdated air traffic control system’, a national shortage of air traffic controllers and persistent staff shortages, influenced that the air travel influenced. Those issues exist long before the Trump and Biden administrations.

For decades, watchdog organizations have been warned about personnel challenges and equipment dysfunction to little use. A multi -year effort to replace the air traffic system, started in 2003, but has taken on countless challenges and remains underway. And proposals from both the Trump and Biden administrations to tackle problems have become little grip.

Long -term concerns about personnel and equipment

Since 1981, when President Ronald Reagan fired and then no thousands of air traffic controllers of the re -terminating who participated in a national strike, the staff has remained a persistent problem at air traffic control facilities.

Although the prohibition on the rework was abolished in 1993, the FAA estimated in 1996 that about a third of the air traffic control facilities had not been sufficiently manned, According to a report from the Government Accountability Office.

A decade later, the FAA had hired a considerable number of controllers to prepare for projected retirement, but still had a lack of fully certified controllers, According to a report from 2008 of the Accountability Office. And the office of the transport department of the Inspector General in 2016 reported That 13 out of 23 facilities that were considered critical did not have enough certified professional controllers.

Under the first Trump administration, the number of controllers fell and the FAA did not make it to renting goals.

A trade union that represented air traffic controllers noted in 2018 that the number of certified controllers had fallen A lowest point of 30 years. A 35-day government closure from December 2018 to January 2019 has led the office to revise its tax year 2019 of hiring objective of 1,431 new controllers up to 907 (It ultimately hired 1,010) and the Coronavirus Pandemie further disrupted recruitment. As a result, the FAA had a head count towards the end of the tax year of 2021 13,850A decrease of around 600 controllers since the At the end of 2016.

Under the Biden administration, the number of controllers was kept stable with a head count of 13,853 At the end of the tax year of 2023, the latest data available. Although the FAA tried to increase acceptance, it was still to do with staff shortages.

A report of 2023 Of the office of the Inspector General’s transport department, the FAA said that the FAA made “limited efforts” to tackle the shortages of controllers and could not ensure sufficient staff levels at critical facilities for eight years, a period that included the administrations under President Barack Obama, President Trump and President Joseph R. Bides. Also said that the report was played for more years.

Similarly, the watchdog agencies have expressed their concern about the outdated infrastructure of the FAA and have noticed challenges in the modernization efforts of the agency in multiple administrations.

The Inspector General of the Transport Department has issued 47 Audit reports and made more than 200 recommendations on NextGgen, the modernization program of the FAA that started in 2003, between 2005 and 2022, including warnings during the Trump administration about Insufficient navigation -backups And Lack of financing in the development and implementation of new radar systems.

The Government Accountability Office reported In 2023, the FAA had made ‘mixed progress’ since 2018 when meeting NextGen -Mijlpalen on time, and noted that the pandaemia contributed considerably to delays.

In 2024, the Government Accountability Office reported that most FAA systems, including many critical safety systems, were untenable or potentially untenable and the agency recommended “Urgent” action.

Unsuccessful attempts to revise the FAA

Mr. Trump, in 2017, endorsed a proposal to privatize air traffic controlA movement that, according to him, would improve safety and reduce delays and costs. But in 2018 he signed legislation Re -authorized the FAA for five years that the proposal did not contain.

Under that legislationThe annual financing of the agency varied from around $ 17 billion in the tax year from 2018 to more than $ 19 billion in 2023, a slight increase compared to the annual financing levels of between $ 15 billion to $ 17 billion in the previous five years.

Mr. Poole praised Mr. Trump’s 2018 infrastructure plan As “excellent” but noted that it contained nothing about air traffic control.

Little has been changed during the Biden administration.

Mr. Biden, in March 2024A budget released with a $ 8 billion proposal to modernize the facilities and radars of the agency. But two months later he signed legislation that did not include the FAA that did not contain that proposal. The annual financing again increased somewhat, ranging from $ 20 billion to $ 22 billion About the tax years from 2024 to 2028.

“There is a lot of sense in this proposal, except the timing,” said Jeff Davis, a senior fellow and editor of Eno Transportation Weekly. “If this proposal of $ 8 billion had come true a year earlier and had some political juice behind it, it might have been the law to have made. As it was, the congress ignored it.”