More than 300 local Federal Aviation Administration employees could be furloughed if Congress doesn't reach agreement on legislation to extend authority for the FAA by midnight, the agency said.
Air traffic control operations and safety inspections will continue and passengers' flights in Atlanta and elsewhere would not be affected. But some other FAA operations are coming to a halt if Congress doesn't act.
A total of 336 FAA employees in the metro Atlanta area could be furloughed, including engineers and those who work with airports on planning, environmental issues and grants, according to the FAA.
FAA's engineering staff in the Atlanta area works on projects throughout the East Coast, as well as in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The partial FAA shutdown would also affect about $67 million in construction dollars for Georgia, according to the agency. For Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in particular, it would prevent the FAA from issuing $7.3 million in entitlement grants.
However, Hartsfield-Jackson spokesman John Kennedy said there is no short-run effect on projects at the airport.
The FAA also said that without Congressional passage of the legislation, about $200 million per week in airline taxes wouldn't be collected. The Air Transport Association, which represents airlines, said airlines were updating their systems to stop collecting excise ticket taxes -- potentially creating a window of reduced prices for consumers -- but a spokesman said he could not speculate on what would happen to fares.
While passengers pay ticket taxes to airlines when they book tickets, the FAA collects those taxes when travel occurs. Travelers who are charged those taxes during the period affected would have the right to seek a refund from the Internal Revenue Service, according to the Treasury Department.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines spokesman Trebor Banstetter, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, said Delta's safety, operations and bookings would not be affected.
Much of the dispute over the FAA legislation deals with cuts in funding to the Essential Air Service program, which provides subsidies aimed at assuring airline service to small towns. The legislation would cut Essential Air Service funding for some small airports, including Athens -- Ben Epps Airport.
Another key dispute is over a provision to reverse a rule change for the National Mediation Board, which governs labor relations at airlines and railroads. The change went into effect last year and affected the way votes are tallied in union representation elections so that unions would have to win only a majority of votes cast, not the votes of a majority of all workers.
The rule was expected to boost union efforts to win a series of major elections at Delta Air Lines, although the unions still lost.
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