Copyright Santa Clarita Valley Signal
By Jacob Burg Contributing Writer The Federal Aviation Administration increased its air travel reductions to 6% at 40 major American airports on Tuesday, as flight cancellations and delays grew into the thousands in the morning hours. Last week, the FAA said it would reduce flights by 10% at 40 “high-volume” airports nationwide, beginning with a 4% cut in traffic on Nov. 7 that would increase to 10% by Friday. On Tuesday, the reductions rose to 6% and would increase to 8% on Thursday. The agency said the cuts were necessary to ensure air travel safety as unpaid and overworked air traffic controllers began to show signs of fatigue during the government shutdown. The shutdown is nearing its end after becoming the longest in U.S. history. As of 10 a.m. (ET) on Tuesday, there were nearly 1,000 delays involving U.S. airspace, as well as nearly 1,200 flight cancellations, according to flight tracker FlightAware. However, these numbers do not distinguish between delays and cancellations that were due to the FAA’s emergency order, routine maintenance, or weather impacts. Saturday saw more than 1,500 flight cancellations, with another 1,000 flights for Sunday evening being canceled. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that the United States would see air travel reduced to a “trickle” leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday due to increasing staffing shortages of air traffic controllers, which have been a persistent problem since the 1980s. Some controllers, Duffy said, were not showing up to work because they needed to take second jobs to feed their families. They had stopped receiving paychecks well ahead of the shutdown reaching the 40-day mark. Even before the FAA and the Transportation Department issued the reduction order, some days during the shutdown saw thousands of flight delays and cancellations. Chicago O’Hare International Airport was hit the hardest on Tuesday, with 64 cancellations and 45 delays by 10 a.m. (ET), followed by Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta with 60 cancellations and 35 delays, according to FlightAware. The government shutdown, now in its 42nd day, is nearing a potential end after the Senate approved a continuing resolution to fund the government late Monday night. The bill now heads to the House for a vote. While the record-breaking funding lapse is slowly winding down, Duffy said last week that the FAA would continue flight reductions until the agency saw staffing levels stabilize among air traffic controllers, and after officials could ensure optimum flight safety. Monday saw more than 3,000 delays and 1,600 cancellations, impacting most major U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest, Delta Air Lines, and United. That day, President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that air traffic controllers who were not showing up to work would be “substantially docked” if they didn’t get back to work. Trump also said he would recommend a $10,000 bonus to air traffic controllers working during the shutdown, but that he was not happy with anyone who “did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future.” “If you want to leave service in the near future, please do not hesitate to do so, with NO payment or severance of any kind! You will be quickly replaced by true Patriots, who will do a better job on the brand new state of the art equipment, the best in the world, that we are in the process of ordering,” the president said.
