The U.S. will reduce flight capacity by 10 per cent at 40 of the nation’s airports starting Friday morning amid growing impacts from an air traffic controller shortage made worse by the U.S. government shutdown, officials said Wednesday.
The shutdown has forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers to work without pay, snarling tens of thousands of flights.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the move was necessary to maintain safety in the skies and at airports, adding “high volume” markets will be targeted.
“We thought 10 per cent was the right number based on the pressure we’ve been seeing,” Duffy told reporters at a press conference.
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U.S. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the agency will release a list of the affected airports on Thursday.
“We want to do this in an organized way,” he said.
“We’re going to ask the airlines to work with us collaboratively to reduce their schedules … so we’re going to look for a radical reduction across these 40 markets over the next 48 hours.”
Duffy had warned on Tuesday that if the federal government shutdown continued another week, it could lead to “mass chaos” and force him to close some of the national airspace to air traffic.
Airlines have repeatedly urged an end to the shutdown, citing aviation safety risks.
Duffy and Bedford both stressed Wednesday that air travel remains safe and that moves to limit capacity, along with past ground stops and delays at certain airports, maintain that safety.
Duffy said it will take time to restore pay and bring back air traffic controllers in a way that allows airports to return to normal operations, even if Congress reaches a deal this week to end the shutdown.
Republicans and Democrats are in a standoff over government funding and health-care premiums that has stretched 36 days, making this shutdown the longest in U.S. history.
More to come…
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