Major US airport is at risk of 'catastrophe' because of shocking staffing shortages, lawmaker warns

A major US airport is on the edge of disaster as staffing shortages threaten passenger safety amid mounting delays, a lawmaker has warned. 

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) was left in chaos over the weekend when understaffed controllers were forced to implement an emergency 'traffic management program,' with frustrated travelers facing 36-minute delays.

The staffing crisis has reached a critical point with the airport operating at barely half of its required levels amid a dangerous shortage of air traffic controllers. 

A shocking 121 positions remain unfilled, though officials claim the current 18 percent vacancy rate is an improvement from a staggering 38 percent gap in January 2023, as reported by KVUE. 

'On a day when there's a significant amount of traffic and bad weather, we could face a catastrophe there,' US Rep. Lloyd Doggett told the outlet.

Rep. Doggett said Austin's air traffic controllers are 'overworked and understaffed,' causing serious safety issues. 

This is despite the airport, which is one of the largest in Texas, serving a record-breaking 22 million passengers in 2023.  

The Democrat's stark warning comes after only eight controllers showed up for work on Sunday instead of the required 13 - with no supervisor present.

Doggett shockingly revealed that the airport should have 60 controllers but is operating with just 35.

And those numbers are expected to plummet below 30 by the year's end.

'We should have assigned 60 air traffic controllers, right now,' Doggett said. 

'We are at about 35 and I expect we will be down perhaps below 30 by the end of the year. That is just not acceptable.'

'I think this is a real failure by the Federal Aviation Administrator to address the safety concerns we have here today,' Rep. Doggett told KXAN. 

'The FAA made this delay in flights departing without even notifying the Austin airport. That is unacceptable, and we have a serious problem here.'

'This is a really serious matter today. It causes inconvenience. It may mean that people miss their connection, but the bigger problem is the safety problem if we don't have adequate air traffic controllers,' he added.

'Due to staffing, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, TX (AUS). This is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 36 minutes,' the FAA told KXAN in a statement.

Doggett said the issue stemmed from a 'direct result of the FAA's unresponsiveness,' calling it 'just not acceptable'.

There have already been several heart-stopping near-accidents on Austin's runways in recent years, including an incident where a FedEx plane came within feet of landing on top of a packed Southwest Airlines flight in 2023. 

Meanwhile, in October, an American Airlines flight carrying 128 passengers came within just 400 feet of colliding with a Cessna R182 that unexpectedly entered its flight path.

The narrowly averted catastrophe unfolded as Flight 2587 from Chicago was preparing to land. 

Thankfully, crews responded to collision avoidance alerts and issued emergency instructions that allowed both aircraft to land safely.

In April 2023, an American Airlines employee died from 'traumatic injuries' after a horror vehicle crash on the tarmac at the airport. 

The worker was operating 'ground service vehicle' on the runway when he struck a jet bridge outside the terminal at Gate 20.

Emergency services rushed to the scene after reports of what Austin police initially described as a 'crash incident', however the unnamed individual was pronounced dead at the scene.

The victim was reportedly still alive when Austin Travis County EMS paramedics arrived on the airfield apron, but succumbed to their injuries on the tarmac, and the cause of death was determined to be traumatic injuries. 

This wasn't the only recent fatality that could have been avoided at the airport. 

In 2020, a Boeing 737 coming in to land struck and killed a man on a runway at the Austin airport.

The Southwest Airlines plane plowed into 22 year-old Junin Ko on runway 17R. 

A small aircraft is currently allowed to fly within five miles of the airport without notifying the control tower - and experts said the risk this poses is multiplied by the shortage of staff manning the facility.

Despite the FAA trumpeting the hiring of 1,800 new controllers nationwide - the highest number in a decade - Doggett claimed that Austin has only received inexperienced trainees who lack the expertise needed for safe operations.

While Congress passed the FAA Authorization Act in May aimed at addressing the controller shortage, Doggett said they have yet to see any meaningful improvement at Austin's tower.

The FAA maintained that operations at the airport had returned to normal by Monday morning after Sunday's delays, but the congressman emphasized that this doesn't address the real issue.

'The [FAA] administrator conceded last year ... that we were very much near the top of the list for these kinds of problems, and yet they have not moved swiftly enough to respond to those needs,' Doggett said.

'They're talking about what they can do next year. We need help now. The number of air traffic controllers available today is less than last year.'

When reached for comment, the FAA told DailyMail.com, 'The vast majority of delays in the National Airspace System are not due to air traffic controller staffing; weather and volume drive nearly all delay minutes. The FAA Traffic Report, which outlines potential weather impacts, is updated daily.'

'We met our goal and hired 1,811 air traffic controllers in 2024. We also met our hiring goal in 2023 and hired 1,500 controllers. 

'We are accelerating air traffic controller hiring by moving to a year-round hiring track for experienced controllers from the military and private industry.

'We're increasing the controller training pipeline by authorizing institutions in the Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) program to provide the same thorough curriculum offered at the FAA Air Traffic Controller Academy, which will allow for immediate facility training upon graduation.

'We are enhancing training with modernized simulators to help us get new hires through training more efficiently.'