The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, and the FAA administrator, Bryan Bedford, said on Wednesday the federal government would be reducing airline traffic by 10% at 40 “high volume markets” beginning on Friday if the government shutdown does not end by then.
The announcement did not specify which 40 airports would see the reduction and said that a complete list would be announced on Thursday with cuts likely at the nation’s 30 busiest airports, including those serving New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas. The reduction will affect cargo, private and passenger traffic.
Reuters reported that the cuts would begin at 4% on Friday, escalate to 5% Saturday and 6% at Sunday, before reaching 10% next week, and that international flights were to be exempted from the initial cuts. Aviaion analytics firm Cirium estimated that the cuts would reduce as many as 1,800 flights and over 268,000 airline seats.
The comments come after Duffy warned earlier this week that the US may close portions of its airspace if the shutdown, now on its record-breaking 36th day, does not end.
Duffy and Bedford repeatedly framed the decision as a pre-emptive, safety and data-driven measure. Bedford said that air traffic was currently operating safely, but that the FAA was concerned about widespread reports of fatigue from flight controllers.
“As we slice the data more granularly, we are seeing pressures build in a way that we don’t feel, if we allow it to go unchecked, will allow us to continue to tell the public that we operate the safest airline system in the world” Bedford said.
“Many of these employees, they’re the head of household,” Duffy said. “When they lose income they are confronted with real-world difficulties on how they pay their bills.”
The 10% reductions are aimed at reducing the stress on air traffic controllers, who have been working throughout the shutdown without pay.
Duffy said that the FAA was offering cash bonuses to retiring air traffic controllers to stay on staff, and that the FAA academy was increasing recruitment in efforts to ease the shortage.
Bedford said that the FAA would be meeting with airline representatives to discuss how to implement the traffic reduction. Bedford and Duffy said that there was potential for further action if the shutdown continued, and if it was deemed necessary for passenger safety. He did not offer specifics when asked about how to ensure that routes or airlines would not be disproportionately affected, or how smoothly the FAA expected the reduction to go, given that the agency estimates it handles more than 44,000 flights and 3 million passengers per day.
The air traffic reduction is expected to exacerbate the flight delays and long security wait times that have plagued American airports since the shutdown began.
“I’m not aware in my 35-year history in the aviation market where we’ve had a situation where we’re taking these kind of measures,” Bedford said. “We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns.”
The shutdown, which began on 1 October, has since left shortages of up to 3,000 air traffic controllers, according to the administration, in addition to at least 11,000 more receiving zero wages despite working as essential workers over the last two weeks. The FAA is already short roughly 3,500 positions from targeted staffing levels.
Duffy said that the controllers received a partial payment at the onset of the shutdown and “a big fat zero” for their checks two weeks ago, and could expect the same tomorrow.
Troubles with the American air traffic control system did not begin with the shutdown – a 2023 study found that 20 of the nation’s 26 most critical airports had staffing levels below the 85% minimum level, and communications outages this spring at Newark’s Liberty Airport brought national scrutiny to the issue, as well as the collision of a military helicopter and passenger jet that killed 67 people outside of Washington DC’s Reagan National airport.
Stocks of major US airlines dipped around 1% in extended trading. The announcement comes just weeks before Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season, and some of the busiest travel of the year.
On Wednesday morning, the shutdown entered its 36th day, becoming the longest in United States history. Duffy’s tweets announcing the 10% reduction in staffing came on the heels of a post he made with AI-generated art blaming congressional Democrats for the shutdown.
Reuters contributed reporting
