On Friday, May 10, Ray LaHood, U.S. Transportation Secretary, announced the Department of Transportation has determined that the recently enacted Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013 will allow the Federal Aviation Administration to transfer sufficient funds to end employee furloughs and keep the 149 low-activity contract towers originally slated for closure in June open for the remainder of fiscal year 2013.
The FAA also will put $10 million toward reducing cuts and delays in core NextGen programs and will allocate approximately $11 million to partially restore the support of infrastructure in the national airspace system.