WASHINGTON – Although the federal government shutdown may be near an end this week, the nation’s airports Tuesday continued to see huge numbers of flights delays and cancellations, including at the three Washington area airports.
Tuesday alone saw 2,415 delays and 1,217 cancellations domestically as of 3 p.m. That included 118 delays and 42 cancellations at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA); 108 delays and 32 cancellations at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD); and 36 delays and 27 cancellations at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), according to FlightAware.
Last Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented a phased-in 10 percent reduction in domestic flights at 40 airports across the country, including the three airports serving the nation’s capital.
The reduction comes after staffing shortages of air traffic controllers were exacerbated by the government shutdown.
“Since the beginning of the shutdown, controllers have been working without pay, and staffing triggers at air traffic facilities across the country have been increasing,” the FAA said in a statement.
Amid increased strain, the preemptive reduction of flights is meant to help maintain safe airspace.
“My department has many responsibilities, but our number one job is safety. This isn’t about politics – it’s about assessing the data and alleviating building risk in the system,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
The FAA announced the goal for cutting flights on Tuesday was 6% and would rise to the full 10% by Friday. The agency already cancelled more than 7,900 flights since last Friday.
Some pilots don’t agree with the FAA’s decision to make these reductions.
“I think that was more theatrics than anything,” one United Airlines pilot, who did not want to be named for fear of being targeted, told Capital News Service.
The pilot said air traffic controller shortages aren’t new. Situations in which one controller is performing the work of two, with no backup, have been going on for a couple of years.
“If you have a couple percentage points of sick calls and the whole system has to be shut down, practically…then you have a real problem,” the pilot said.
The Senate on Monday voted 60-40 to approve a deal that funds the government until the end of January. If approved by the House as early as Wednesday, the longest government shutdown in history would end.
The shutdown has interrupted numerous government services, closed offices, suspended food assistance and produced snowballing chaos in air travel.
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he would be recommending a $10,000 bonus for any air traffic controllers who did not call out sick during the shutdown.
The pilot said the FAA didn’t provide evidence supporting the need for the widespread flight reductions.
“They blindsided the airlines and blindsided everybody,” the pilot said.
He explained that pilots now have to take extra precautions because they do not know how long their flights will be.
“We don’t know what to expect,” the pilot said. “We have to plan for more delays, which means you have to carry more fuel, which costs the airlines more money…coming home from Europe and a half hour (was added onto) our flight time because we got an unexpected re-route around Boston airspace and that was due to staffing shortages.”
In addition to costs to airlines, delays can mean costs to the cabin crews. The pilot said about half of the cabin crew fly to work on their own dime, so delays and cancellations make it difficult to get to work.
“Your flight gets canceled. So now how do you get the crew members there? Oh, they have to put them on a different flight. You know, (it’s a) rolling cascade of problems when you reduce flights,” the pilot said.
It is unclear how soon the nation’s air travelers would see more normal operations once the government reopens.
“From the pilot’s perspective, as soon as they say we’re going to add all the flights back, we’re going to go right back to where we were pre-shutdown,” the United pilot said. “And yeah, there’s staffing issues with the air traffic controllers, but all the flights will still be there. We’ll just deal with the delays and take it as it comes.”