US air travel could ‘slow to a trickle’ as shutdown bites, says transport secretary
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US airlines are bracing themselves for more flight cuts triggered by a government shutdown.
PHOTO: EPA
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WASHINGTON – Air travel in the United States could soon “slow to a trickle”, the authorities warned on Nov 9 as thousands more flights were cancelled or delayed and passengers face chaos triggered by the federal government shutdown.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the number of flights being snarled or cut would multiply if the funding impasse between Democrats and Republicans continues while Americans gear up to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday later in November.
“It’s only going to get worse. The two weeks before Thanksgiving, you’re going to see air travel be reduced to a trickle,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN’s State Of The Union, a Sunday news talk show.
“We’re going to see air traffic controllers – very few of them coming to work, which means you’ll have a few flights taking off and landing... You’re going to have massive disruption (and) a lot of angry Americans,” he said.
On Nov 9 afternoon, more than 1,800 flights within the US and to and from the US had been cancelled and there were close to 5,700 delays, according to data from FlightAware, a flight tracking platform.
Airports that were particularly hard hit included the three New York City area airports, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
Newark’s Liberty International Airport – a major north-eastern US hub – was among the worst-hit. Twenty per cent of flights due to leave were scrapped, and there were delays to 37 per cent of outbound flights, FlightAware showed.
At LaGuardia Aiport in New York City, nearly half of all flights were delayed.
Mr Duffy warned that many Americans planning to travel for the Nov 27 holiday “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.”
The Thanksgiving weekend also kicks off the busy winter shopping season on which many retailers rely.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) instructed airlines to cut 4 per cent of daily flights
Reductions in flights are mandated to reach 6 per cent on Nov 11 and then hit 10 per cent by Nov 14.
The FAA said on Nov 7 air traffic control staffing shortages were impacting 42 airport towers and other centres and delaying flights in at least 12 major US cities, including Atlanta, Newark, San Francisco, Chicago and New York.
A growing number of air traffic controllers have retired since the federal shutdown started on Oct 1, Mr Duffy said. The FAA is 1,000 to 2,000 controllers short of full staffing, he told CNN.
“I paid experienced controllers to stay on the job and not retire,” he said. “I used to have about four controllers retire a day before the shutdown. Now, up to 15 to 20 a day are retiring.”
Some 1,550 flights were cancelled and 6,700 flights were delayed on Nov 8
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 cuts, which began early on Nov 7, include about 700 flights from the four largest carriers: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. The airlines were due to cancel about the same number of flights on Nov 9.
During the US government shutdown, 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 security screeners have been forced to work without pay.
Mr Duffy said it was possible he could require 20 per cent cuts in air traffic if more controllers stop showing up for work.
“I assess the data,” he said. “We’re going to make decisions based on what we see in the airspace.”
Republican Senator Ted Cruz said he was told by the FAA that since the shutdown started, pilots have filed more than 500 safety reports about mistakes made by air traffic controllers because of fatigue.
Mr Duffy sought to blame Democrats for the high-stakes political standoff, but Senator Adam Schiff said Republicans were rejecting a “reasonable” compromise deal to end the shutdown.
“And the result from the Senate Republicans was ‘no,’ from the House Republicans ‘we are staying on vacation,’ and from the president ‘I’m going out to play golf,’ and that’s where we are while people are hurting,” Mr Schiff said.
When asked whether Democrats would turn around and vote with Republicans, Mr Schiff, a California Democrat, indicated that the issue of healthcare subsidies remained a sticking point in negotiations.
“No, I certainly hope it isn’t going to happen if millions of people are going to retain their health coverage and not have to pay these exorbitant premium increases,” Mr Schiff said on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
“We need to end this. We proposed something, I think very reasonable. It was a compromise. Certainly wasn’t everything I want, which is a permanent extension of the tax credits,” he said, urging Republicans to allow “more time to work on this and reopen the government.” AFP, REUTERS
