Federal Aviation Administration to close 149 Air Traffic Towers due to Budget Cut

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on 22 March 2013 announced closure of 149 Air Traffic Control Towers across United States. The decision of shutting down the traffic control towers came in wake of the budget cuts that had trimmed several million dollars from it.

The decision will be in affect from 7 April 2013 in the small airports of across the country. Shutting down of the towers will not force the shutdown of the airports but now, the pilots will have to coordinate the landings and takeoffs among themselves on a shared radio frequency. The pilots will receive no help from ground controllers.

Federal Aviation Administration was forced by the authorities to slash 637 million dollars for rest of the fiscal year that ends on 30 September 2013. The administration had only one option of ending most of its employees to a periodic unpaid leave. The airports that had been targeted for forced shut down of the towers had 150000 total flight operations per year f which only 10000 are the commercial flights by passengers’ airlines.