Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a stark warning Sunday that U.S. air travel could grind nearly to a halt in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving if the government shutdown continues, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) faces severe air traffic control shortages.
The FAA’s staffing crisis has forced widespread flight reductions at more than 40 major airports nationwide. Duffy said 81 “staffing triggers” were reported Saturday, prompting operational changes across the national airspace. At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, one of the country’s busiest, “18 of 22 controllers didn’t show up,” he noted.
Duffy said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union: “It’s only going to get worse. The two weeks before Thanksgiving, you’re going to see air travel be reduced to a trickle.” Duffy explained that many controllers are choosing to stay home as they face financial hardships caused by the prolonged government shutdown. “I want them to come to work. The problem is, they’re confronted with real economic problems. The answer is, vote to open up the government and then have your debates, have your conversation. I think that’s the best way, best approach, to get America back operational.”
As of Sunday morning, more than 1,500 flights had been canceled and over 4,000 delayed, according to FlightAware. Those figures follow 1,550 cancellations on Saturday and 1,025 on Friday. The FAA reported that 42 airport towers were experiencing staffing shortages that delayed flights in at least a dozen major cities, including Atlanta, Newark, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.
To manage the shortages, the FAA implemented ground delay programs at several major hubs, including Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Newark Liberty, Houston Hobby, George Bush Intercontinental, Nashville, Chicago O’Hare, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports. These measures slow down air traffic to ensure safety but significantly limit the number of flights moving through affected airspace.
The FAA said the reductions amount to roughly a 4% cut in flight capacity this weekend, projected to climb to 6% by Tuesday, 8% by Thursday, and up to 10% by Friday if the shutdown persists.
Despite the growing disruption, Duffy assured travelers that safety remains the agency’s top priority, saying: “We’re working overtime to make sure that it is safe to travel. If we have staffing triggers in locations in the American airspace, what we will do is, we will slow traffic, which means you will have delays, and then airlines might cancel flights.”
Still, Duffy acknowledged the mounting strain on both the system and the workforce. “Next Friday, it’s going to be at 10% to reduce the pressure on controllers. The problem is that as I try to reduce the pressure by lowering flights, I have more controllers that keep not coming to work. And so the pressure goes back up again.”
With the holiday travel season fast approaching, Duffy warned that if the shutdown isn’t resolved soon, “many people hoping to get home for Thanksgiving are not going to be able to get on an airplane, because there are not going to be that many flights that fly if this thing doesn’t open back up.”
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