Send raft-equipped planes to help reduce Florida flight delays, Buttigieg tells airlines

Pete Buttigieg is the Secretary of Transportation and he wants airlines to send more planes to Florida.

Airspace around Florida is congested due to a number of reasons, and Buttigieg wants airlines to use more of the offshore routes off Florida's east coast. He said in a letter Thursday to airline CEOs that those routes were underutilized last winter.

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aircraft that fly more than 50 nautical miles from the shoreline are considered to be conducting extended overwater operations. rafts, life jackets, flares, emergency beacon, and a survival kit are required in these cases. Not every aircraft has this equipment, which costs a lot to acquire and maintain.

After an early summer of flight delays around Florida, buttigieg wrote a letter. Airlines and the FAA are still at odds over the root cause of the delays. Air traffic control staffing is insufficient at a facility near Jacksonville, Florida, that handles traffic en route to and from the state of Florida, according to airlines. The FAA has said that airlines need to work on scheduling.

There are a lot of reasons your Florida flight could be delayed.

In the letter, Buttigieg addressed both sides of the debate and his notes were similar to those made by Billy Nolen.

He said that the Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center, which is located near Jacksonville, has increased its staff by 10%. The airspace was closed due to space launches.

He said that the airlines have learned from the stress test. He said that the industry had made progress with long-term staffing issues and pointed out the huge pay increases that regional airline pilots have seen recently.

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There is a room inside the FAA command center.

Denver and Phoenix have seen growth in the last few years. He urged airlines to share their growth plans with the FAA as soon as possible.

There are indications that the routes between Colorado and Arizona could experience even higher volume than last year.

"If you can make the FAA aware of growth plans in high-growth markets like Denver and Phoenix, the more effective we can be in aligning resources to make sure air traffic controllers are ready to respond," he said.

The Department of Transport in the U.S.