US Transportation Secretary Stan Duffy said Wednesday he would order a 10 percent reduction in flights at 40 major U.S. airports, citing air traffic control safety concerns, as .
The drastic measure forced airlines to make significant flight reductions in just 36 hours, while passengers flooded airline customer service lines with concerns about air travel in the coming days.
Duffy said the cuts could be reversed if Democrats agreed to reopen the government. The shutdown, the longest in US history, has forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration employees to work without pay.
The Trump administration has sought to increase pressure on Democrats to end the shutdown and has increasingly raised the specter of dramatic disruptions to aviation. Democrats argue that Republicans are to blame for refusing to negotiate on essential health care subsidies.
Millions of travelers have already suffered
Tens of thousands of flights have been delayed since the shutdown began due to a widespread shortage of air traffic control personnel. Airlines say at least 3.2 million travelers have already been affected by the lack of air traffic control personnel.
“We’ve looked carefully at what our job is,” Duffy told reporters, referring to a confidential security assessment of the shutdown’s impact on controllers, which raised concerns about their performance. “Our job is to make sure we make the tough decisions to continue to keep the airspace safe,” he said.
In a conference call with major US airlines, the FAA said capacity reductions at airports would start at 4%, increase to 5% on Saturday and 6% on Sunday, before reaching 10% next week, according to . The FAA also plans to exempt international flights from the cuts.
FAA Administrator Brian Bedford said at a press conference: “We can take steps today to prevent the situation from getting worse so that the system is extremely safe today and will remain extremely safe tomorrow.”
Although the government has not announced the names of the 40 airports that will be affected, the cuts are expected to hit the 30 busiest airports, including those serving cities such as New York, Washington, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas. This will lead to a reduction of up to 1,800 flights and more than 268,000 airline seats, according to aviation data analytics firm Cirium.
Government officials said nothing will be final until the FAA releases the decision on Thursday. The move is intended to relieve air traffic controllers. The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of staffing goals, and many of them were working mandatory overtime and six days a week even before the shutdown.
Airlines are assessing the impact
The FAA also warned it could impose more flight restrictions after Friday if further air traffic problems occur.
United Airlines ( UAL.O ) Chief Executive Scott Kirby outlined the airline’s strategy for reducing flights, assuring staff and customers that international long-haul and hub flights would remain unchanged. The cuts will apply to regional flights and domestic flights that do not operate between hub airports.
Kirby highlighted the flexible refund policy, telling staff: “All customers traveling during this period are entitled to a refund if they do not wish to fly, even if their flight has not been affected.”
American Airlines ( AAL.O ), opens a new tab, expressed a similar view, indicating that most of its customers would experience minimal disruption. Southwest, the largest domestic airline, said it is evaluating how the cuts will affect its schedule and will contact customers as soon as possible. He urged lawmakers to immediately resolve the impasse over government funding.
The Airline Attendants Union-CWA, which represents 55,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines, called the shutdown “a vicious attack on all Americans.” “The false narrative that this shutdown is a choice between paying federal workers or protecting affordable health care is outrageous when both crises were created by the same people who can fix them,” said its president, Sarah Nelson.
