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The cancellations on Sunday came as Republicans and Democrats reached a stopgap deal on ending the shutdown after the impasse over the passage of a funding bill dragged into its 40th day. Travel disruption has been mounting since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last week ordered reductions in air traffic amid reports of air traffic controllers exhibiting fatigue and refusing to turn up for work, Al Jazeera reported. Some 13,000 air traffic controllers, who are deemed “essential” employees under US government rules, have been forced to work without pay since the start of the shutdown on October 1. More than 3,300 US flights were cancelled and some 10,000 flights were delayed on Sunday, according to data from flight-tracking website FlightAware. More than 1,500 flights were cancelled on Saturday, following the cancellation of about 1,000 flights on Friday. Under the FAA’s phased-in reduction in air traffic, airlines were ordered to reduce domestic flights by 4 percent from 6am Eastern Standard Time (11:00 GMT) on Friday. Flights are set to be reduced by 6 percent from Monday, 8 percent by Thursday, and 10 percent by Friday. In media interviews on Sunday, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy warned that air travel could grind to a standstill in the run-up to the Thanksgiving holiday on November 27.
