Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday announced a series of “traffic management initiatives” at airports and other facilities around the country as a result of employee furloughs due to the government’s automatic budget cuts known as sequestration. The agency warned travelers to expect a wide range of delays that will change throughout the day depending on staffing and weather. For example, the FAA cited staffing “challenges” at the New York and Los Angeles en route control centers and at the Dallas-Fort Worth and Las Vegas terminal radar approach control facilities (Tracons). Controllers have begun spacing airplanes farther apart so they can manage traffic with current staff, which will lead to delays at airports including Dallas/Fort Worth, Las Vegas and Los Angeles International. The FAA said it also expects delays at Newark International Airport in New Jersey and New York La Guardia because of weather and winds.


The agency attributed more than 1,200 system delays on Monday to staffing reductions from the furloughs. Another 1,400 delays occurred as a result of weather and other factors, it added.


The U.S. air transportation system began feeling the effects of the sequester cuts on Sunday, when airlines cancelled 207 flights and suffered 4,842 delays, according to Portland, Oregon-based flight data and tracking service FlightStats. On Monday, cancellations totaled 400 and delays totaled 6,997.


On Monday New York La Guardia led all U.S. airports in the proportion of flights delayed (52.67 percent), followed by Fort Lauderdale (48.84 percent), Orlando (47.29 percent), Tampa (43.04 percent), Denver (41.7 percent), Newark (41.34 percent), New York JFK (36.89 percent), Miami (32.26 percent), Charlotte, N.C. (31.2 percent) and Chicago Midway (28.67 percent).


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