Journalism of Courage
As US government shutdown entered its 36th day, the Trump administration’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cautioned that he would order the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to cut 10% flights across 40 “high-volume” airports beginning Friday morning to maintain travel safety which exhibits signs of strains as the bottleneck between Republicans and Democrat continues.
The FAA chief Bryan Bedford, during a press briefing with Secretary Duffy, said that the decision was made due to air traffic controllers reporting fatigue. “It is unusual, just as the shutdown is unusual, just as the fact that our controllers haven’t been paid for a month is unusual,” Bedford said.
The cuts announced by the aviation agency could impact thousands of flights across the United States as the FAA directs more than 44,000 flights on a daily basis, including commercial passenger flights, cargo planes and private aircraft. A Reuters report stated that after the announcement passengers flooded airline customer service hotlines with queries about air travel plans.
However, Secretary Duffy said the cuts announced by the FAA could be reversed if the Democrats agreed to reopen the federal government. The shutdown, which is being termed as the longest in US history, has forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration agents to work without being paid for the last 36 days, Reuters reported.
Due to widespread air traffic control shortages, tens of thousands of flights have been delayed across the United States since the federal shutdown began and airlines have stated that about 3.2 million travelers have been impacted by shortages of air traffic controllers.
Secretary Duffy said, “We had a gut check of what our job is. Our job is to make sure we make the hard decisions to continue to keep the airspace safe.” The cancellations could affect between 3,500 and 4,000 flights per day.
(with inputs from agencies)
