U.S. travel group urges funding to avoid airport chaos repeat

Though summer is approaching fast, the head of the U.S. Travel Association isn’t forecasting much in the way of sunny skies for travelers passing through the country’s air travel system.

Speaking with reporters at the association’s quarterly travel outlook roundtable Wednesday, president and CEO Geoff Freeman used the occasion to urge Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration to improve a “woefully underfunded and understaffed” system.

“If the government doesn’t act now, headaches won’t just happen during peak travel season or holidays,” he said. “It will become our daily reality.”

Freeman expects “substantial frustrations among travelers” this summer, not unlike what happened last year when passengers coped with delays, lost luggage and long security lines during what came to be called a summer of travel chaos. Airlines across the world worry that the problems could persist.

Freeman blamed the ongoing issues on “missed opportunities” by the government over the years to address three main concerns:

• “Chronically underfunded” aviation infrastructure and technology.
• Insufficient air traffic controllers, customs officers, pilots and other aviation workers.
• Increasing demand on the aviation system.

Yes, despite last year’s woes and soaring airfares, the TSA expects summer air travel to surpass pre-pandemic levels, Freeman said. “This summer’s travel demand will be as strong as we’ve seen since before the pandemic — and potentially the strongest ever.”

The surge is built on domestic leisure travel, which had already recovered to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022. The domestic leisure sector is so strong it more than makes up for languishing numbers of domestic business travelers — still just 80% of pre-COVID levels — and international inbound travelers, whose spending was at 55% of pre-pandemic levels last year.

The loss of international travelers has been an economic blow, Freeman said, both for tourism and trade shows, whose organizers estimate attendance is down 10-20% because of the difficulties international travelers have in entering the country.

While the vaccination requirement for non-U.S. citizens to enter the country could end as soon as May 11 if the TSA doesn’t extend it again, other obstacles remain. They include waits as long as a year for first-time visitor visa applicants and long lines — two to three hours in some cases, Freeman said — for foreign nationals entering the country.

He sees opportunity to address the issues for all travelers as Congress looks to renew the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, which expires Sept. 30. Freeman listed three key asks from the aviation industry:

• At least $50 million per year for aviation workforce development programs to increase the supply of qualified pilots and mechanics.
• $4 billion in funding for air traffic control infrastructure and technology, plus enough funding to hire 1,800 new air traffic controllers per year over the next three years.
• $4 billion per year in airport improvement grants while enabling medium and large hub airports to keep more of their grant funding.

For proof of the need, Freeman pointed to the breakdown in January of the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions system that grounded flights across the U.S. for several hours in January, leading to more than 10,000 delays or cancellations.

“The system failure that grounded all flights earlier this year exposed how fragile air travel in America really is,” he said, adding, “The government must solve this problem.”