Copyright The Boston Globe
Here’s a closer look at what to know about the reductions. The 40 airports selected by the FAA for reductions span more than two dozen states and include hubs such as Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami and Newark, according to an order published by the agency Thursday evening. A full list of affected airports can be found here. Tips for passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled during the shutdown can be found here. More than 815 flights have been called off nationwide, according to FlightAware. Delta Air Lines said it would scratch roughly 170 flights Friday, and American Airlines planned to cut 220 daily through Monday. Three percent of all U.S. flights scheduled for Friday — or 748 flights — had been canceled as of 6 a.m. ET, while about 1.7% of Saturday’s flights had been canceled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Karen Soika from Greenwich, Connecticut, unsuccessfully tried to book a rental car after learning her flight to Utah was leaving from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport instead of Newark Liberty International Airport. “I’m a surgeon, I’m used to chaos,” she said. “I’m going to U-Haul and I’m going to drive a truck cross country to get back to Utah,” said Soika, who’s advising on medical scenes there for a spinoff of the TV series “Yellowstone.” Air traffic controllers have gone without paychecks during the shutdown. That has led to controllers calling in sick and contributed to staffing shortages that have affected air travel for weeks. Most controllers work mandatory overtime six days a week during the shutdown without pay, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association has said. That leaves little time for a side job unless controllers call in sick to the FAA. The reductions began Friday and airlines have said people could see weekend travel plans disrupted with little notice. Airlines will phase in reductions at the direction of the FAA, starting by eliminating 4% of flights at the targeted airports and building to 10%, according to the agency’s order. United Airlines will cut 4% of its flights this weekend based on guidance from the FAA, said company spokesperson Josh Freed. It is unclear when the reduced flights could end. Airlines, unions and the travel industry have urged Congress to end the shutdown, which on Wednesday became the longest on record. The cuts could include up to 1,800 flights and about 268,000 seats combined, according to one estimate. United and Delta both said they would offer refunds to travelers who opt not to fly, even if they have tickets that aren’t normally refundable. The cuts also could disrupt package deliveries because two airports with major distribution centers are on the list. FedEx operates at the Memphis, Tennessee, airport and UPS in Louisville, Kentucky, where there was a deadly cargo plane crash this week. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said this week that he has never seen these kinds of measures taken in his nearly four-decade experience in the aviation field. Staffing problems led to delays throughout October, but they were mostly isolated and temporary. Last weekend, though, saw a change. From Friday to Sunday evening, at least 39 air traffic control facilities reported potential staffing limits, according to an Associated Press analysis of operations plans shared through the Air Traffic Control System Command Center system. The figure, which is likely an undercount, is well above the average for weekends before the shutdown.
