Due to budget lockdown
USA wants to cancel numerous flights
The US aviation authority wants to cancel numerous flights nationwide from Friday. Due to the budget freeze, thousands of airport employees are currently having to work without pay.
Due to the ongoing budget freeze, the USA wants to start canceling flights. From Friday, the number of flights at 40 important airports will be cut by up to ten percent if no agreement is reached to end the shutdown by then, said Transport Minister Sean Duffy.
The move is intended to reduce pressure on air traffic controllers. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also warned that it could impose further restrictions after Friday if there were problems with air traffic.
According to estimates, up to 1,800 fewer flights per day
The 36-day government shutdown is the longest in U.S. history. Around 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have to work without pay.
This is leading to staffing shortages, according to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. He had already said on Tuesday that 20 to 40 percent of air traffic controllers at the authority’s 30 largest airports did not show up for work.
Transport Minister Duffy had also previously warned of possible airspace closures because numerous air traffic controllers reported sick due to lack of pay.
Possibly up to 1,800 flight cancellations every day
The government did not provide any information about which airports would specifically be affected. However, according to the Reuters news agency, it is expected that the busiest airports in the USA will be included, including those in New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas.
According to calculations by the analysis company Cirium, up to 1,800 flights and more than 268,000 seats per day could be eliminated. That could cause chaos at airports ahead of two long holiday weekends in November, particularly Thanksgiving on Nov. 27, when many U.S. families gather.
