The United States Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, announced on Wednesday afternoon, November 5th, that in order to ensure flight safety during the government shutdown, the flight capacity at 40 major airports across the country will be reduced by 10% starting Friday morning. This will affect approximately 3,500 to 4,000 flights per day.
During a press conference held on Wednesday, Duffy stated that this decision was a proactive measure.
Brian Bedford, the Director of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), emphasized at the press conference that due to the increasing pressure caused by the ongoing government shutdown leading to a shortage of manpower, the agency will not wait for a crisis to take action.
“We cannot ignore this issue,” Bedford stated.
FAA is facing a severe shortage of air traffic controllers. Since the government shutdown on October 1st, more controllers have been absent from work due to the lack of payment, some taking sick leaves to work second jobs to make ends meet. This has resulted in widespread flight delays and cancellations at airports across the country.
Duffy and Bedford announced that they would meet with airline executives later on Wednesday to discuss how to safely implement the flight reduction plan.
Bedford mentioned, “Preliminary indications tell us that we can take action today to prevent the situation from worsening.”
At the time of this decision by the transportation leaders, the U.S. government shutdown had entered its 36th day, becoming the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
Duffy anticipated that the reduction in airport flight capacity would lead to more flight cancellations, and it is currently unclear when this measure will be lifted.
“Based on the pressures we are seeing, we believe that 10% is an appropriate number,” Duffy added.
It is currently unknown which airports will be affected. Bedford and Duffy refused to disclose the list of affected airports during the press conference, stating that they need to communicate with the airlines first. Bedford mentioned that the list will be released on Thursday.
Duffy had previously issued warnings about taking this action. On Monday, he mentioned during an interview with CNBC, “If we feel it’s unsafe… we will close the entire airspace, not allowing people to travel. We’re not there yet. It’s just very severe delays.”