Copyright Star Tribune
Travel frustrations are expected to grow Friday as the federal government’s mandate to cut 10% of the air traffic at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport goes into effect amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandated the cancellations as a safety measure at 40 major airports nationwide while air traffic controllers continue to work without pay, ratcheting up pressure on an already strained system. As of Thursday evening, 26 flights in and out of MSP had been canceled, including 24 on Delta Air Lines, the Twin Cities’ dominant carrier, according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company. All were domestic flights and spread across roughly a dozen airports, including Green Bay, Wisc., Minot, N.D., and Sioux Falls, S.D. Minnesota-based leisure carrier Sun Country Airlines, the second-most-traveled at MSP, said its flight schedules would be adjusted Friday. The airline was contacting impacted customers directly. Airlines were working to lessen the impact on customers. But travel analysts predicted messy outcomes as airlines hustled to cut back operations in line with the FAA’s orders. Meantime, as Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration continue to blame Democrats for the gridlock in Washington, D.C. — and vice versa — the travel slowdown is becoming the political flashpoint some hope will bring lawmakers back to the bargaining table to end the impasse.
