Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
With the secretary of transportation warning that Thanksgiving week could end up being an immensely inconvenient one for air travelers, a potentially troubling hors d’oeuvre has been evident at Philadelphia International Airport. On Friday, the day after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered 4% cuts in air traffic at major airports, fewer than 25% of all inbound and outbound flights were delayed or canceled. That number jumped to nearly a half on Sunday, according to an Inquirer analysis of data from FlightAware, the airline traffic-tracking service. While the numbers appeared to rebound somewhat Monday, however, they still were considerably inferior to Friday’s. Plus, the FAA has announced that the percentages of flight reductions at PHL and 39 other major airports will climb to 6% Tuesday, 8% Thursday, and 10% Friday, barring an end to the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1. According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, absenteeism has increased among air traffic controllers, who on Oct. 24 missed their first paychecks since the shutdown started on Oct. 1, and shortages have led to delays and safety concerns, thus the flight cutbacks. Airline systems specialists at PHL, who maintain the equipment used by the air traffic controllers, have not been paid since the end of September. Some progress in ending the shutdown was reported in Congress on Monday, however, the settlement prospects remained very much up in the air The increases in delays and cancellations at PHL On Friday, just under 25% of all flights in and out of PHL were either canceled or delayed, according to an analysis of FlightAware and PHL data. On Saturday, that number increased to more than 40%, and to 49% Sunday. About 800 flights arrive at and depart from PHL daily. It was unclear what, if anything, an approaching polar front — which could produce Philadelphia’s first official freezing reading in nine months on Tuesday morning — had to do with Sunday’s issues at PHL. In advance of the front, fog reduced visibility to about a half mile at 8:20 p.m., said Patrick O’Hara, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly. It dropped to 1.5 miles at 10 p.m. during a thunderstorm, however, the rains shut off and visibility had improved by midnight, O’Hara said. Actually, said Heather Redfern, spokesperson for Philadelphia International Airport, 10 flights that were bound for Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy, and Westchester County Airports were diverted to PHL on Sunday night. And conditions inside the airport evidently weren’t as chaotic as they were elsewhere. In spite of the closure of two terminals, the security lines were moving reasonably well. “TSAGeneral 5-10 minutes,” read an automatic sign outside the checkpoint in Terminal B Sunday morning. American Airlines, which operates three-quarters of all PHL flights, announced that travelers whose flights are canceled or choose not to travel can make alternate arrangements and request a refund. The airline said that in all, it would cancel about 220 flights per day in the first days of the reduction but would still operate 6,000 flights daily. When will the shutdown end and PHL return to normal While the Senate late Monday afternoon appeared to be nearing a vote on ending the shutdown, it was unclear when that would happen. If it were approved, the House would have to concur. Among the members of Congress who insisted they would not vote in favor of ending it was Democrat Madeleine Dean. She said that while, “everybody worries about the safety in the skies,” this was “not the time to cave” on her party’s healthcare demands. As long as the shutdown continues, Duffy said on CNN’s State of the Union program Sunday, for air travelers, “It’s only going to get worse. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, “You’re going to see air travel be reduced to a trickle,” he said.
