Copyright The New York Times
Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, on Tuesday refused to say when he would roll back the restrictions on flights at 40 busy airports, even with an apparent end to the government shutdown on the horizon. Instead, he offered a sharp warning: If the House did not follow the Senate’s lead and pass the bill quickly, not only would the flying public experience major delays and cancellations by the weekend, but some airlines might even ground their fleets. “In my conversations with the airlines and with the F.A.A., and what we’re seeing with air traffic controllers — we feel there’s going to be significant issues in the airspace,” Mr. Duffy said, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration, at a news conference at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. If the government does not open soon, he added, “you might have airlines that will say, ‘We’re going to ground our planes. We’re not going to keep flying anymore,’” predicting that such a disruption could happen even before the Thanksgiving travel rush, perhaps as soon as this weekend. Throughout the shutdown, Mr. Duffy has warned of impending chaos, drawing rebukes from Democrats that his forecasts were more about pressuring them to end the shutdown than offering impartial assessments of the air-travel system. Last week, Mr. Duffy and the F.A.A. ordered mandatory flight reductions at 40 airports nationwide. The cuts, which began with a 4 percent reduction on Friday and were slated to rise to 10 percent by the end of the week, were based on the F.A.A.’s analysis of data, Mr. Duffy has said, and were imposed to alleviate strain on air traffic controllers, who have been increasingly struggling with absences in their ranks. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
