U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Friday that airlines could be ordered to slash as much as 20 per cent of their flights if the federal government shutdown continues, escalating
an already unprecedented squeeze on the nation’s air travel system.
Airlines were required to cut four per cent of domestic flights at 40 of the country’s busiest airports on Friday under a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) directive aimed at relieving pressure on overworked air traffic controllers. Those reductions are set to rise to 10 per cent on Nov. 14, and Duffy said deeper cuts are on the table.
“I assess the data,” Duffy told reporters. “We’re going to make decisions based on what we see in the air space.”
The record-long 38-day shutdown has left 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 airport security screeners working without pay, fuelling widespread absenteeism. FAA administrator Bryan Bedford said earlier this week that 20 to 40 per cent of controllers have been missing work on a given day.
The Trump administration has been increasing pressure on Democrats to support a Republican funding plan to reopen the government. The threat of further air-travel disruption is viewed as a potential political lever heading into the holiday season.
Democrats, meanwhile, insist Republicans are responsible for the standoff, accusing them of refusing to negotiate over health-insurance subsidy extensions. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul posted a photo Friday of a departure board filled with cancellations, saying the shutdown had “grounded America just in time for the holidays!”
Friday’s reductions affected roughly 700 flights across the four largest U.S. carriers — American, Delta, Southwest and United — with cuts expected to reach six per cent by Tuesday. International flights are not targeted under the FAA order.
Still, the strain is evident. Controller shortages on Friday forced the FAA to delay hundreds of flights at major hubs including Atlanta, San Francisco, Houston, Phoenix, Washington and Newark. By mid-afternoon, more than 3,500 delays had been reported nationwide.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said he expects the initial cuts to have limited impact on passengers but warned that deeper reductions would create serious challenges.
“This level of cancellation is going to grow over time,” Isom told CNBC. American said 220 cancellations Friday disrupted about 12,000 travelers.
United Airlines reported rebooking about half of its affected passengers within four hours of their scheduled departures. The carrier cancelled 184 flights Friday and plans to drop another 168 on Saturday and 158 on Sunday.
Duffy stressed the FAA-ordered cuts are intended to preserve aviation safety as controllers face mounting fatigue. Pilots have increasingly reported that controllers appear stressed or slow to respond, he said. “The numbers are going in the wrong direction.”
Airlines were given less than 12 hours’ notice before the cuts took effect, prompting complaints from carriers who said they were blindsided. The FAA has also tightened restrictions on space launches and warned it may cut up to 10 per cent of general-aviation flights at busy airports if staffing worsens. Photo by U.S. Department of Transportation, Wikimedia commons.
