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Flights at 40 big US airports will be cut by 10 per cent from Friday as federal aviation officials seek to alleviate air traffic controller shortages worsened by the government shutdown, potentially disrupting the plans of hundreds of thousands of travellers.
US transportation secretary Sean Duffy said on Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration would begin reducing flights later this week to keep air travel safe as it contends with shutdown pain on top of a nationwide shortfall of about 2,000 air traffic controllers.
The names of the 40 affected airports would be released on Thursday, FAA head Bryan Bedford said at a joint press conference with Duffy, adding that the decision would be “data-based”.
“This is not based on what airlines have more flights out of what location. This is about, ‘Where’s the pressure, and how do we alleviate the pressure?’” Duffy told reporters.
Bedford and Duffy warned that additional restrictions could be implemented if these initial steps do not relieve staffing pressures.
About 3mn passengers on more than 44,000 flights travel through US airports each day, according to the FAA. The restrictions are expected to affect commercial and cargo flights on domestic and international routes, in addition to space travel.
Bedford said US airspace was “running as efficiently today in terms of its safety metrics”, because it was before the government shutdown began, but that an analysis had uncovered “issues of fatigue” from flight controllers.
As the shutdown stretches into a record fifth week there have been few signs of a deal to reopen the government.
President Donald Trump, who has blamed the shutdown on the Democratic party, has refused to meet with its top leaders to forge an agreement. The shutdown has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers on furlough or working without pay.
Duffy said that as a result of the shutdown, air traffic controllers were about to go a full month without pay. That had prompted some to not turn up to work and instead take on other jobs to make ends meet, he said.
“I do not want them to take side jobs. I want them to show up for work,” Duffy said on Wednesday. “We have asked them to show up for work, but I am not naive to understand that they are trying to figure out how to meet their daily [financial] obligations.”
The transportation secretary added that steps had already been taken to shore up its workforce — including offering cash bonuses to incentivise retirement-age controllers to continue working, and fast-tracking trainees at the FAA’s academy.
“The shutdown is having an impact on our ability to maintain those numbers and dent that 2,000 shortage that we have,” Duffy added.
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