D

Estimating the Cost of Staffing-Related Flight Delays

This appendix draws on Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data on delays, including those attributed to staffing, to estimate the cost of these staffing-related delays. All data are drawn from FAA’s Operations Network (OPSNET) database. After reviewing trends in delays, an estimate is made of their costs to passengers and airlines.

The estimated cost of delays in 2024 caused by FAA Air Traffic Control (ATC) staffing shortfalls ranges between $135 million and $165 million, although, as noted below, this estimate does not include delay-related costs the committee is unable to account for due to data inadequacies.

FAA DELAY DATA

FAA provides information about delays reported daily through FAA’s OPSNET. A reportable delay is defined as “delays to instrument flight rules (IFR) traffic of 15 minutes or more, which result from the ATC system detaining an aircraft at the gate, short of the runway, on the runway, on a taxiway, or in a holding configuration anywhere en route.” The delays are then classified into five primary causes:

1. Weather: adverse weather conditions affecting operations.
2. Volume: delays due to volume when airport is in optimal configuration with no impacting conditions.
3. Runway: Reductions in capacity due to runway/taxiway closure or configuration changes.

4. Equipment: ATC equipment failure or outage causing reduced capacity.
5. Other: All impacting conditions not elsewhere classified, such as airshows, VIP restrictions, military operations. Staffing shortfalls were added as subcategory of “Other Delays” beginning in mid-2022.

Table D-1 shows delays by cause for calendar years 2015–2024, as well as averages for 2015–2019 (pre-COVID), 2020–2021 (COVID), 2022–2024 (post-COVID). Reductions in weather-related delays account for most of the decline in total delays. Runway and volume delays have declined slightly, while delays due to equipment have risen in numbers and duration. The number of delays attributed to “Other Factors” (including staffing) has been more variable, including an unprecedented decrease in 2023 relative to 2022 and 2024 (as well as to pre-COVID years). The committee was not able to identify any reporting changes that would explain the 2023 anomaly. Because of this variability, it used the average of the 2022–2024 period. The average duration of Other Delays has increased from 30 minutes in 2015–2019 to 45 minutes in 2022–2024. All the delay metrics in Table D-1 increased dramatically in 2024 compared to a year earlier.

As staffing delays are subsumed within the Other Delays category, we reviewed the longer-term mix of Other Delays, as shown in Table D-2.

Table D-2 shows that from 2015 to 2019 the share of Other Delays (which includes staffing) were relatively stable, averaging about 5.0% of delays and 3.3% of delay minutes. For the overall 2022–2024 period, there is a marked rise in Other Delays to 6.1% of delays and 6.7% of delay-minutes.

DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL AND OTHER DELAYS JANUARY 2022–DECEMBER 2024

Table D-3 shows that the Other Delays category was concentrated in the Core 30 Airport facilities (Towers, TRACONS, Tower and Approach Control, and Centers) as well as in the 19 facilities defined as “staffing levels 15% below their standard” in Chapter 2. These 19 facilities (1 Level 9, 18 Levels 10–12) represent approximately 22% of operations, but about 40% of Total Delays and about 45% of Other Delays (which include staffing-related delays).

TABLE D-1 Distribution of OPSNET Delays by Cause for 2015–2024 and Averages for 2015–2019, 2020–2021, and 2022–2024

SOURCE: FAA OPSNET.

TABLE D-2 Total Versus Other Delays, January 2010–December 2024

SOURCE: FAA OPSNET.

TABLE D-3 FAA Total and Other Delays Category by Facility Type, January 2022–December 2024

SOURCE: FAA OPSNET.

DELAYS BY SECONDARY CAUSE

Beginning in June 2022, FAA added a new secondary subcategory to the “Other Delays” category. This classification occurs when a facility reports delays due to insufficient staffing. The data are reported in terms of the number of flights delayed, as well as the duration of each delay. Thus, to estimate the total delay due to staffing, it is necessary to aggregate all the flights and the associated time they were affected by the staffing delay. The results are shown in Table D-4. The table shows that delays due to staffing shortages have grown rapidly and now represent more than half of Other Delays. In 2024, the 12,711 delays due to staffing represented 622,669 minutes of delay, averaging 49 minutes.

As shown in Table D-5, of the 622,669 minutes of staffing-related aircraft delays, 86% were attributed to just seven facilities.

TABLE D-5 Concentration of Staffing Delays Versus Staffing Levels, 2024

SOURCE: FAA OPSNET.

Of these facilities, only PHL was overstaffed. This was likely in anticipation of taking over approach control duties for EWR to ease the demand faced by other New York area facilities (ZNY and N90) that were more than 20% below their staffing standards. Transition of approach control duties to PHL was undertaken deliberately for safety reasons and caused numerous delays.

ESTIMATING THE COST OF FAA STAFFING DELAYS

FAA staffing delays data are used in this section to estimate the annual cost of staffing delays. For January–December 2024, there were 622,669 minutes of reported aircraft delays due to staffing.¹ As explained below, the estimated cost of delays due to ATC staffing in 2024 ranges between $135 million and $165 million, depending on assumptions. It is important to note that these estimates are only for direct delays and do not include any subsequent propagated delays, such as missed connections or arrival delays.

Estimating Staffing Delay Costs for Airlines

Two sources of information on airline operating costs are used in this section. The Association for American Airlines (A4A) reports a fleet-weighted average variable operating cost per hour of $6,048, equal to $100.80 per minute.² FAA reports a fully-allocated cost (including lease/capital costs) of $8,916 per hour, equal to $148.60 per minute.³ Both estimates of airline operating costs are used below.

Using variable operating costs only,
Minutes of Aircraft Delay
•622,669
Airline Operating Costs per minute
•$100.80 (from A4A)
Airline delay costs = 662,669 × $100.80 = $62,765,035
Using fully-allocated costs,
Minutes of Aircraft Delay
•622,669

Airline Operating Costs per minute
•$148.60 (from FAA)
Airline delay costs = 662,669 × $148.60 = $92,528,613

Estimating Staffing Delay Costs for Passengers

FAA estimates the weighted (business and leisure) value of air passenger travel as $47.10 in 2016 and recommends adjusting this figure by the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for other years.⁴ Using this adjustment, the estimated value of passenger travel time in 2024 is $62.04 per hour. In addition, A4A reports that the average number of passengers per flight was 106. Passenger-related delay costs due to staffing are estimated as:

Aircraft Delay Minutes
•662,669
Times: Average passengers per flight
× 106
Equals: Total Person-Delay Minutes
70,242,914
Divided by 60
÷ 60
Equals: Person Delay Hours
1,170,715
Times: Value of Travel Time
•× $62.04
Equals: Estimated Passenger Delay Costs
$72,631,159

Estimated Total Staffing Delay Costs (January–December 2024)

Estimate (airline variable operating costs) = $62.8 million (mm) + $72.6mm = $135.4mm

Estimate (airline fully-allocated costs) = $92.5mm + $72.6mm = $165.1mm