AUSTIN, Texas — After calls from national lawmakers for the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to step up its resources at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), city council members are joining in, raising their own concerns.
This comes after a slew of close calls have happened on Austin runways. Five close calls in the span of a year, to be exact.
"Expressing those concerns directly to the FAA and encouraging the city manager to have those discussions also is paramount," District 6 Councilmember Mackenzie Kelly said.
Kelly is co-sponsoring a resolution that would urge the city manager to put pressure on the FAA to address safety.
"We need to do everything we can to encourage the FAA to hire, recruit and train those individuals to the highest level possible. And that's not just at AUS, that's at every airport across the country," Kelly said.
That resolution, which will come up at the council's Thursday meeting, highlights five close calls here in the past year.
The first was an incident in November 2022 between Southwest and American Airlines planes. The second was in February 2023 between a Southwest plane and a FedEx cargo jet. Two months later, there was another incident involving a Southwest plane and a Skywest plane. A June 2023 close call between Allegiant Air and a small private aircraft. And the most recent incident was in September, between a military jet and a private plane.
City leaders acknowledge there's not much they can do except call on the FAA for change. It's an issue Austin Congressman Lloyd Doggett has highlighted too.
"The one I was particularly concerned with is where a FedEx plane almost landed on top of a Southwest Airlines packed passenger plane," Doggett said.
It's why he also said the FAA needs to increase staffing and resources at Austin's airport.
"We've got 35, plus seven trainees, which gets us to 42. But that's not sufficient because many of those trainees are not their trainees. They're not fully qualified to do all aspects of air traffic control," Doggett said.
In response to the City's new call for change, the FAA sent KVUE this statement:
"One serious close call is one too many. The FAA and the aviation community are pursuing a goal of zero serious close calls, which is a commitment from the Safety Summit in March. The FAA maintains extremely conservative standards for keeping aircraft safely separated and multiple layers of safety protect the traveling public. Safety experts follow up on all events and evaluate them for risks, and we hold annual runway safety meetings at every airport with a control tower."
Both Kelly and Doggett agree these issues can't be taken lightly with lives at risk.
"I would want to know that my elected officials are aware of what's going on and willing to do what it takes to get some changes because that's what's needed," Kelly said.
Doggett said he's set to meet with the FAA's newly confirmed administrator next week.
The U.S. Senate's Aviation Safety Subcommittee plans to meet Thursday in Washington, D.C., to take up recent close calls.