US flights to be reduced to a “trickle” due to growing shortage of air traffic control personnel, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Major airlines were facing a third day of government-ordered flight cuts after thousands of delays and cancellations paralyzed traffic on Saturday. The closure, which has reached a record 40 days, has caused a shortage of air traffic controllers who, like other federal employees, have not been paid for weeks.
“It’s only going to get worse…the two weeks before Thanksgiving, you’re going to see air travel slow to a trickle“Duffy said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Millions of people usually travel on the eve of Thanksgiving, one of the most important holidays in the United States, which this year falls on November 27.
“A lot of them aren’t going to be able to get on a plane, because there’s not going to be as many flights…if this doesn’t open back up,” Duffy said.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered airlines to reduce daily flights by 4% startingn Friday at 40 major airports due to air traffic control safety concerns. The reductions should reach 6% on Tuesday and reach 10% on November 14.
On Saturday, the FAA reported that air traffic control personnel shortages were affecting 42 airport towers. and other centers and delaying flights in at least 12 major American cities, including Atlanta, Newark, San Francisco, Chicago and New York.
A growing number of air traffic controllers have retired since the federal shutdown began Oct. 1, Duffy said. The FAA is missing between 1,000 and 2,000 controllers to fill its staff, he told CNN.
“I’ve paid experienced controllers to stay on the job and not retire,” Duffy said. “I used to have about four controllers retiring a day before the closure, (…) now they are retiring between 15 and 20 a day.”
Some 1,550 flights were canceled and 6,700 delayed flights on Saturday, compared to 1,025 cancellations and 7,000 delayed flights on Friday.
Airline officials said privately that the number of delays made it almost impossible to schedule and plan many flights and expressed alarm about how the system would work if staffing problems worsened.
The cuts, which began Friday morning, include about 700 flights from the four largest airlines: American Airlines AAL.O, Delta Air Lines DAL.N, Southwest Airlines LUV.N and United Airlines UAL.O. Airlines are expected to cancel around the same number of flights on Sunday.
During the Administration shutdown, 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 safety inspectors have been forced to work without pay. Duffy had previously said he could demand 20% cuts to air traffic if more controllers stop showing up for work.
