TRAVEL: Air travel and the sequester

THE sequester is looming. Big cuts to America's federal budget are set to take effect automatically on Friday March 1st, unless Congress can agree on a new budget deal. If it does not, $85 billion will be cut from the 2013 budget and $1.1 trillion over the next decade. The axe will fall mainly on the defence budget, from which 8% will be chopped, but 5% must also be found from non-military programmes. One of those, says the government, is air travel. Last week Ray LaHood, President Obama's transportation secretary, warned Americans that the sequester could lead to massive air travel delays across the country.Mr LaHood said that about 10% of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which monitors air traffic safety in America, would be given a day off without pay ("furloughed") on any given day after the sequester hits. The FAA faces around $600m in cuts over the rest of the fiscal year, and would be forced to eliminate midnight shifts at over 60 air traffic control towers around the country. The FAA is even considering closing many other facilities entirely.Many of the facilities that would be closed, or where midnight shifts would be eliminated, are not crucial transit hubs. Air traffic control at New York's JFK, Chicago's O'Hare, Washington's Dulles, and many other enormous airports would be unaffected. But many business travellers rely on small ...