The Federal Aviation Administration is slashing airline traffic by 10% at 40 of the nation’s busiest airports, including those serving New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago, starting Friday, according to a list obtained by The Washington Times.
Transportation Department officials say the move is necessary for air safety because of the shortage of air traffic controllers amid the government shutdown.
The plans of hundreds of thousands of travelers could be affected as early as Friday.
Air traffic controllers have been working without pay since the shutdown began Oct. 1. Scores have worked six days per week with mandatory overtime. Absences have skyrocketed, triggering travel disruptions nationwide.
The list, distributed by air carriers, shows that flights will be cut in more than 25 states and will affect some of the nation’s busiest airports. In cities such as New York, Chicago and Houston, multiple airports will be impacted.
In the Washington area, Washington Dulles International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport will experience a 10% reduction in flights.
SEE ALSO: Which airports are cutting flights during the shutdown? Here’s a list
Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare Airport, Denver, Dallas and Los Angeles International Airport — the five busiest passenger airports in the country — will be among those with fewer flights. Airports with heavy cargo traffic, including Louisville, Memphis, Anchorage and Ontario, California, will also have fewer flights.
An airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, which is used primarily for private jets and other general aviation services, will also be impacted.
The Transportation Department has not officially released the list of affected airports but is expected to issue updates.
The cuts will start at roughly 4% Friday, followed by 5% Saturday, and will gradually increase to 10% sometime next week, Transportation Department officials said at a press conference Wednesday.
The chaos was already evident Thursday. FlightAware, a website that tracks airline disruptions, had listed 601 flight cancellations for Friday.
United Airlines said it adjusted its Friday schedules but avoided canceling long-haul international flights and hub-to-hub flights for seven airports on the list, including Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, and Washington Dulles International Airport.
The White House said United canceled “hundreds” of flights and blamed Democrats for the delays.
The FAA issued an alert Thursday to travelers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, warning flyers that they could expect delays of 45 to 90 minutes or more because of “staffing” problems.
A 10% cut at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, the nation’s busiest, would mean about 200 fewer flights and roughly 30,000 fewer passengers, according to an analysis of the airport’s traffic data. At Chicago O’Hare Airport, that would likely mean more than 120 fewer flights and 15,000 fewer passengers.
Overall, it could impact as many as 1,800 flights and 268,000 passengers nationwide per day, according to an estimate by aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters that the cuts were necessary to protect passengers amid overworked and threadbare staff overseeing U.S. air traffic.
“There’ll be frustration,” he said at the Wednesday press conference. “But in the end, our sole role is to make sure that we keep this airspace as safe as possible.”
On Thursday, Mr. Duffy noted that air traffic controllers will miss their second paychecks Friday. He urged Congress to reopen the government and “get them paid.”
Roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration agents are working without pay.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pointed fingers at each other for the reduction in flights.
“Democrats are flirting with disaster,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican. He said the Transportation Department “had no choice” but to cancel flights because of the shutdown.
Some Democrats accused President Trump of pressuring Democrats to end the shutdown at the expense of inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of airline passengers and the resulting economic fallout.
Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said shutting down parts of the national airspace is “a dramatic and unprecedented step that demands more transparency.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, said the Trump administration caused the mess by laying off so many FAA workers ahead of the shutdown. He called for a “full and complete briefing” on the impact of the layoffs before the shutdown.
“The administration has been going after the FAA since the beginning of their time in office,” he said.
Mr. Duffy rejected claims of political motivations for reducing air traffic. “Let me be clear: this isn’t about ‘leverage.’ It’s about the safety of the flying public,” he wrote on X.
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said slashing flights was the right call.
“Pressures are building in the system,” she wrote on social media. Mr. Duffy “can’t just ignore it; he took action to mitigate risk and ensure safety.”
The major airlines and industry unions responded to the cuts by demanding that Congress end the shutdown.
Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle told passengers traveling within the next 10 days not to book nonrefundable basic tickets.
“If your flight is cancelled, your chances of being stranded are high, so I would simply have a backup ticket on another airline,” he posted on social media. “I’m sorry this is happening. Hopefully, the shutdown is over soon.”
American Airlines said in a statement that it was awaiting further information from the FAA but expected that the “vast majority” of customers would be unaffected.
“In the meantime, we continue to urge leaders in Washington to reach an immediate resolution to end the shutdown,” American Airlines said.
Southwest Airlines said it was evaluating how the flight restrictions would impact its schedule. It said it was urging Congress “to immediately resolve its impasse and restore the National Airspace System to its full capacity.”
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents 55,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines, called the shutdown “the latest cruel attack on federal workers.”
She said it was part of “a never-ending effort to demoralize dedicated civil servants and veterans in order to privatize all functions of government — in service to the greed of few at the expense of the many.”
Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said air traffic controllers have become “rope in this tug of war game that’s going on.”
“We’re calling on Congress to end the shutdown. End it by any means. It needs to happen. Pass the legislation, pay the air traffic controllers and all the federal employees and let us keep doing the amazing job that we do.”
• Lindsey McPherson contributed to this report.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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