Santa Maria and SLO Airports not affected by furloughs

The Federal Aviation Administration’s furlough program will not affect the Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo airports, at least directly.

Airport administrators say that both airports control towers are contracted out and the employee’s are not FAA employees.

However, because both airports connect to larger cities, including Los Angeles and Phoenix, there could be delays.

“I checked the schedule this morning and it looks like the flights went out on time but obviously with LA you get some delays with weather and other things it’s going to be a little difficult to see it initially,” said Santa Maria Airport general manager Chris Hastert

Of the 47,000 FAA employees being furloughed every other week, 15,000 are air traffic controllers.