&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Shutdown-induced chaos in US; flights delayed, cancelled amid employee 'fatigue'")
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States, the country's aviation regulator, is mulling over slashing the number of flights to tide over the paucity of staff at local airports because of the government shutdown.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that there would be a 10 per cent reduction in the capacity at least 40 of “our locations”. He said that the move was taken to alleviate the pressure.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told NBC News that the reduction in capacity was spurred by fatigue of air traffic controllers.
The cut in the number of flights will happen in a phased manner. Flight cuts would start at 4% Friday, 5% Saturday, and ramp up to 10% next week.
Most of the air traffic workers have been working without pay because of the government shutdown.
Bedford said that the Controllers have been working diligently for the last five weeks with this huge burden over their heads due to a lack of compensation. He said that the agency has noticed this fatigue building up. Bedford said that the agency is not waiting for the situation to get worse.
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The US government shutdown has entered its second month, forcing hundreds of thousands of workers without pay.
Over 5000 flights were delayed in the US on Sunday. On Monday, 2,885 flights were delayed.
Those flying in and out of Chicago's O’Hare International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were the hardest hit. This is because over 900 flights were delayed and 35 were cancelled at these facilities.
On Wednesday, 2100 flights were delayed and 164 were cancelled. The lack of pay has triggered a shortage of traffic controllers.
Duffy said that many of these traffic controllers have been forced to take side gigs to pay their bills in the absence of pay.
“By the way, I do not want them to take side jobs. I want them to show up for work. We have asked them to show up for work, but I’m not naive enough to understand that they’re trying to figure out how they meet their daily obligations,” he said.
United Airlines’ CEO Scott Kirby told the publication that the reduction will impact regional and other domestic flights. However, international flights will not be impacted.
American Airlines said most of its customers' travel will not be affected.
On Tuesday, Duffy had said that there would be chaos in the skies next week if the government shutdown drags on and air traffic controllers miss a second paycheck.
The head of the air traffic controllers' union has warned that the financial pressure on air traffic controllers will only increase if the shutdown continues. FAA employees already missed one paycheck on October 28.
Duffy said none of the US workers can manage to miss two paychecks.
“So if you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos. You will see mass flight delays. You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it, because we don’t have air traffic controllers,” he added.