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A comment on ATC staff shortages: 11,000 Flights Cut from NYC and DCA in Summer 2023.

Re:ATC staff shortages: 11,000 Flights Cut from NYC and DCA ... by frontiersummit on Sunday April 16, 2023 @10:52PM (#35596361)
Why not cut back on general aviation flights first? My naive solution (granted I know little about ATC) would be to give commercial flights priority over GA flights if ATC is overloaded. No 8-seat business jet is more economically important than a 200-seat airliner. Say nothing of recreational piston-engine flights. At the very least slap a $5000 surcharge on every GA takeoff or something.
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Re:ATC staff shortages: 11,000 Flights Cut from NYC and DCA ... by kortilla on Sunday April 16, 2023 @11:00PM (#35596407)
Same fee for every aircraft. Increase until the congestion reduces. This is called a congestion tax, it works.

No need to distinguish between purpose of the flight. If it’s economically important, they will pay.

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Re:ATC staff shortages: 11,000 Flights Cut from NYC and DCA ... by catminou on Sunday April 16, 2023 @11:10PM (#35596477)
Canada already has a usage fee for using ATC services fwiw. Based upon type / weight and distance traveled you get charged per flight.

Same thing could be used here - not sure it's going to fix some of the fundamental issues of lack of staff and poor FAA management.

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Re:ATC staff shortages: 11,000 Flights Cut from NYC and DCA ... by Cyberdogs7 on Sunday April 16, 2023 @10:58PM (#35596400)
Typically your single piston GA flight will be operating in very different airspace than a 200 seat airline. Just as you can't take a single piston pilot and put in as the pilot in command of a 200 person airliner, ATC personal are not easily hot swappable between airports or airspace.
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Re:ATC staff shortages: 11,000 Flights Cut from NYC and DCA ... by catminou on Sunday April 16, 2023 @10:56PM (#35596384)
GA folks generally aren't taxing the atc system. Most are vfr and not on a plan.
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Re:ATC staff shortages: 11,000 Flights Cut from NYC and DCA ... by User23 on Sunday April 16, 2023 @11:00PM (#35596405)
> No 8-seat business jet is more economically important than a 200-seat airliner

Devil's advocate: Prove it.

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Re:ATC staff shortages: 11,000 Flights Cut from NYC and DCA ... by Matheus28 on Monday April 17, 2023 @02:27AM (#35597400)
Piston-engine flights are the ones training future pilots…
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