Copyright Men's Journal
Air travel across the United States continues to face severe disruption as the ongoing government shutdown has caused staffing shortages for air traffic controllers. Last week, the FAA mandated a 10% cut in flight capacity; and the ripple effects have led to thousands of flight cancellations each day. Now, it seems even the pilots are fed up. Viral Clip Catches Pilot Venting About Cutbacks One passenger flying out of LaGuardia Airport in New York City caught a clip of a pilot explaining the extensive delays to frustrated flyers. And he sounded just as fed up as everyone trapped on the plane. “I don’t really care what your political persuasion is, but you should really call your senators. Because I’ll tell you, this is costing the airlines millions of dollars,” he began. “Just think of 30 airplanes with one engine running, and it’s gonna take us at least 90 minutes to take off. So it’s frustrating. It’s really frustrating for me. Because right now it’s gonna cost about two hours of our lives on the ground before we even take off. Spend all that gas, all that money, and it just rolls into the rest of this system.” He went on to note that things could soon be even worse. Although the FAA set a 10% flight reduction target, that number is set to be phased in over the course of this week. “Right now we are at a four percent reduction in flight capacity. Next week we go to 10,” he said. “Last night I had a six-hour delay in Houston and the weather was perfect. It’s because the air traffic controllers aren’t getting paid.” The clip has racked up over 3.5 million views on TikTok. Shutdown End Within Sight As The New York Times reported, a late-night vote in the Senate on Sunday advanced a plan to end the government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history. The government could reopen as soon as Wednesday, with thousands of federal workers who have been furloughed or working without pay returning to normal duties. It’s unclear, however, how long airlines and the FAA would need to restore regular service.
