Flight cuts imposed during US shutdown will be reduced by half

WASHINGTON – The leaders of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department of Transportation announced Nov 14 that they would reduce flight restrictions at 40 key airports from 6 per cent to 3 per cent starting from Nov 15, scaling back cuts they had imposed to address air travel disruptions brought on by staffing shortages during the government shutdown.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA administrator Bryan Bedford said the 3 per cent restrictions would remain in place while the FAA monitored the situation through the weekend to determine when fully restored operations could resume.

Air traffic controller staffing has been steadily improving since

the shutdown ended on

the night of Nov 12

, they said.

Mr Duffy and Mr Bedford launched the cuts a week ago, citing data that they said showed worsening staffing problems at air traffic control facilities, worrisome rates of airplanes coming into proximity of each other and a rise in confidential reports from airplane pilots claiming controllers seemed more distracted and less responsive than usual.

The restrictions, applied at 40 busy airports, were initially supposed to encompass 10 per cent of all flights in and out of those locations by Nov 14 – but they never rose to that level. Mr Duffy and Mr Bedford

froze the cuts at 6 per cent

just hours before the shutdown ended.

On Nov 14, they credited improvements in the number of so-called staffing triggers, which occur when controller absences at an air traffic facility reach a level that forces delays, as driving the decision to begin reducing the restrictions.

The announcement noted that there were 11 staffing triggers across US airspace on Nov 11, 13 on Nov 12, four on Nov 13 and only three as of about 5pm on Nov 14.

Those numbers are an improvement from the weekend, when there were 81 staffing triggers on Nov 8 – a record high for the shutdown. They also show improvement compared with similar days last week. There were 19 staffing triggers Nov 4 and 14 on Nov 5, but the number steadily climbed after that.

The reduction in flight restrictions comes as welcome news for airlines, which, according to industry trade group Airlines for America, were braced for losses of up to US$100 million (S$130 million) a day when it appeared that cuts might reach 10 per cent.

Industry and government officials have estimated that it would take about a week after the government reopened for air travel to return to normal, allowing the sector to recover before the busy Thanksgiving travel season begins in earnest the next weekend.

“Safety is always our top priority, which is why airlines comply with all FAA regulations,” Airlines of America said in a statement.

Mr Duffy has credited the government’s reopening for improving attendance and morale among controllers, who were grappling with staffing shortages before the shutdown and were forced to work without pay through the impasse.

That became untenable for some controllers as they began to miss paychecks, government and union officials said, forcing some to seek outside sources of income and worsening attendance problems.

Earlier on Nov 14, Mr Duffy said controllers had begun receiving the first 70 per cent of what they were owed for working without pay during the shutdown. President Donald Trump recommended this week that controllers with perfect attendance receive a US$10,000 bonus. Mr Duffy endorsed the idea, but it is unclear when those might be paid out.

On Nov 13, Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem began doling out US$10,000 bonuses to employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) who she said “went above and beyond” during the shutdown.

She said the bonuses were covered by leftover 2025 funds that came from cost savings the Trump administration had negotiated. Representatives for DHS and TSA did not respond to a request for more details about the source of the funds. NYTIMES