A huge number of travellers had their flights delayed or cancelled on November 9 in what seems to be the worst day for civil aviation-related disruptions since the start of a US government shutdown, as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned of worse to come in the run-up to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Airlines cancelled more than 2,800 flights and delayed more than 10,200 on the third day of government-mandated flight cuts due to rising air traffic control staffing shortages, after thousands of delays and cancellations snarled traffic on November 8.
The government shutdown, which lasted for a record 40 days, has led to shortages of air traffic controllers who, like other federal employees, have not been paid for weeks.
“It’s only going to get worse… the two weeks before Thanksgiving, you’re going to see air travel be reduced to a trickle. Many of them are not going to be able to get on an aeroplane because there are not going to be that many flights that fly if this thing doesn’t open back up,” Duffy said on CNN’s “State of the Union” programme.
And the timing of the disruption couldn’t have been worse, as it coincided with the run-up to Thanksgiving, one of the most important US holidays, which this year falls on November 27. Millions of people usually travel during the national holiday.
Although the US Senate has voted to advance a bill to end the government shutdown, the issue here is that despite the bill’s passage, it must be approved by the House of Representatives and sent to President Donald Trump for his signature, a process that could take several days. While talking about the administration’s plan to deal with the ongoing aviation crisis, Duffy said that his department is not planning to revoke the flight cuts until controllers begin returning to work and safety data improves.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has already instructed airlines to cut 4% of daily flights at 40 major airports due to safety concerns with air traffic control. Flights are mandated to be reduced to 6% on November 11, then to 10% by November 14. The staffing issue has been seen at 12 air traffic control towers.
American Airlines urged quick approval of the Senate bill, noting that for 40 days, “federal aviation workers haven’t been paid and our customers have endured thousands of delays and cancellations due to the government shutdown.” Many airlines have already planned their cancellations for the coming days. United Airlines, for example, will cut 190 flights on Monday and 269 on Tuesday, the company told Reuters.
As per Duffy, a growing number of controllers have retired since the beginning of the federal shutdown on October 1. The FAA is 1,000 to 2,000 controllers short of full staffing.
“I paid experienced controllers to stay on the job and not retire. I used to have about four controllers retire a day before the shutdown… now up to 15 to 20 a day are retiring,” the Transportation Secretary noted.
Some 1,550 flights were cancelled and 6,700 were delayed on November 8, up from 1,025 cancellations and 7,000 delayed flights the day before.
Airline officials privately said the number of delay programmes made it nearly impossible to schedule and plan many flights and expressed alarm about how the system would function if staffing issues worsen. The crisis will have its far-reaching impacts on the broader American economy, said White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett.
“Thanksgiving time is one of the hottest times of the year for the economy… and if people aren’t travelling at that moment, then we really could be looking at a negative quarter for the fourth quarter,” he told the CBS show “Face the Nation.”
Trade association and lobbying group Airlines for America, which represents major carriers, said staffing issues had disrupted more than four million passengers’ travel plans since October 1, when the shutdown began. The body estimates the ongoing crisis to have a daily economic impact of USD 285–580 million.
The cuts include about 700 flights from the four largest carriers: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines. As the government shutdown continues, some 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 security screeners are working without pay.