The Federal Aviation Administration has said it will be reducing air traffic by 10 percent across 40 major airports beginning Friday amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Wednesday that the action would be taken at “high-volume” airports in order to maintain safety and that the decision “had not been taken lightly” ahead of the busy Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday travel season.
Addressing reporters at a press conference, Duffy did not specify which flights and carriers would be affected or how long such cuts would be in effect, despite the looming holidays, the first of which is just over three weeks away.
Duffy said the agency was confronting staffing shortages caused by air traffic controllers, who are working unpaid, with some calling out of work during the shutdown, resulting in delays across the country.
The shutdown, now in its 36th day and the longest in U.S. history, has forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers to work without pay and affected tens of thousands of flights so far, according to Reuters.
“Many of the controllers said they can survive without one paycheck,” Duffy said. “They can do that. They put a little money away. They have a little nest egg. They have a rainy day fund... they can navigate losing one paycheck.
“That said almost all of them, virtually all of them, cannot navigate financially missing two paychecks. And so we see that on the horizon. We need to take action today. But if it gets worse, if we have more issues with our controllers, we will analyze the data and we'll take additional steps.”
Duffy said that administrators did not want to see disruption of any kind at the FAA or Department of Transportation but that “our number one priority is to make sure when you travel you travel safely.”
He added that 10 percent of flights had been the right amount of reduction “based on the pressure we have seen.”
“I anticipate there will be additional disruptions, there will be frustration. We are working with the airlines, they're going to work with passengers, but in the end our sole role is to make sure that we keep this airspace as safe as possible.”
Duffy also acknowledged there would be tangible affects on air travel and passengers.
“I travel a lot,” he said. “We are concerned about that, but we had to have a gut check of what is our job? Is it to make sure there's minimal delays or minimal cancellations, or is our job to make sure we make the hard decisions to continue to keep the airspace safe?
“That is our job: the safety. And so again, when we see pressure, we are going to get ahead of it and make sure that you get to where you're going.”
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the agency was not going to wait for a problem to act, saying the shutdown is causing staffing pressures and “we can’t ignore it.”
Bedford added that the measures would stretch beyond commercial airspace and include “restrictions on space launches” as well as restrictions on visual flight rules “in certain markets.”
Live air traffic tracker FlightRadar said that while it was uncertain how the proposed cuts would be metered across different markets, it would likely affect around 5,000 commercial flights per day.
Airlines have repeatedly urged an end to the shutdown, citing aviation safety risks. Shares of major airlines, including United and American Airlines were down about 1 percent in extended trading Wednesday.
Both airlines released online statements reassuring customers and providing updates on how their travel may be affected in the coming weeks.
“We expect the vast majority of customers’ travel will proceed as planned, and we will proactively reach out to customers who are impacted as schedule changes are made,” American wrote.
In response to a customer query, it added: “Flights on Thursday, Nov. 6, will operate as planned. While we are awaiting additional information from the FAA to determine which flights will be impacted, we expect the vast majority of our customers’ travel will be unaffected.”
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