SALT LAKE CITY — The countdown is underway for the air traffic slowdown scheduled to go into place Friday at dozens of airports across the country, including Salt Lake City, but how will it be implemented?
While FAA officials have said the 10% reduction in travel will take pressure off air traffic controllers who have gone without pay during the ongoing government shutdown, experts in the air travel industry are skeptical.
Salt Lake City International Airport
Check real-time SLC flight delays/cancellations during air traffic 'slowdown'
"A 10 percent cut on domestic-only flights is also not necessarily going to reduce the need for controllers. Maybe it reduces the workload a little bit, but it seems like a fairly haphazard band-aid type of solution to try and improve things and show the government is trying to do something," shared Brett Snyder, president of Cranky Flier, an airline industry blog.
Salt Lake City travelers pack bags, nerves ahead of air traffic slowdown:
Snyder claims the aviation industry isn’t enamored with the FAA’s solution. He’s not sure what it will accomplish and figures it will be a big headache for the airlines.
"You have to figure out how do you route aircraft? They need to be in certain places for maintenance at certain times of the night. You have to figure out crew scheduling. You have to figure out how to re-accommodate all these passengers. So there's a lot that the airlines have to do," he explained.
Another expert believes the major airlines are now working feverishly on the fly to meet FAA mandates.
"It's all very choreographed to get everything planned and put together," said Ryan Ewing, founder, airlinegeeks.com
Ewing added that things will be a work in progress for the Airlines, with passengers getting the first dose on Friday.
"I think [the airlines] have an idea of what it's gonna look like, and they're already starting to kind of hack away at the schedules in a strategic way," he said, "but there's still a lot of questions."