Airport disruptions may get worse this week
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
By NIRAJ CHOKSHI
Thousands of flights were canceled this past weekend after federal restrictions on flying were put in place at the nation’s busiest airports. And the cuts are expected to grow in the coming days, threatening to wreak further havoc for airlines and travelers as Thanksgiving approaches.
The Federal Aviation Administration required airlines to cut flights by 4% at 40 busy airports starting Friday, citing the need to improve safety and relieve pressure on air traffic controllers who have worked without pay since the federal government shutdown began last month.
At one point Saturday, 18 out of 22 controllers in Atlanta did not show up to work, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“It’s only going to get worse,” Duffy said. “I’d look to the two weeks before Thanksgiving, you’re going to see air travel be reduced to a trickle.”
Airlines tried to weather the restrictions throughout the weekend by making careful cuts, but the disruptions grew each day and will become harder to manage as the restrictions rise to 10% by Friday and possibly even higher.
Airlines canceled hundreds of flights each day from Friday through Sunday at airports serving major cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. The cuts were concentrated among flights offered by three of the largest carriers, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, which dominate many of those busy airports.
American canceled about 740 flights Friday and Saturday, or more than 6.5% of its schedule for those days, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm. Delta canceled about 640 flights across both days, or more than 7.3% of its schedule, while United cut more than 450 flights or more than 5.2% of its schedule.
But the disruption was worse Sunday. More than 2,000 flights had been canceled by midafternoon, making it the year’s fourth worst day for cancellations, behind a handful of days in January when storms disrupted flying, according to Cirium. Delta had canceled more than 14% of its schedule by midafternoon Sunday, while American and United had each canceled more than 9%.
Delays have also been on the rise throughout the weekend, affecting more than 8,300 flights as of Sunday afternoon.
Throughout the first few weeks of the shutdown, controller staffing had a limited effect on cancellations, according to the trade group Airlines for America, which represents the largest passenger and cargo airlines. Through Oct. 29, the nation’s six largest passenger airlines canceled fewer than a dozen flights because of controller staffing problems, it said, citing an analysis of FAA data through Saturday.
Since then, though, those airlines have canceled more than 1,200 flights because of controller staffing problems. On Friday alone, 865 flights were canceled for reasons related to controller staffing, about 87% of which were because of the FAA directive to reduce flying at the 40 busy airports.
In a social media post, Duffy said that private jets were also being diverted from busy airports to smaller ones to better accommodate commercial flights.
On CNN, Duffy said that an average of four controllers retired daily before the shutdown, but that number is now up to 15 to 20. He also said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had offered the help of military reservists trained as air traffic controllers, but Duffy said he wasn’t sure if he would be able to use them.
Thousands of travelers were affected by the weekend disruptions, but airlines benefited somewhat from the timing of the cuts.
Planes are generally less full in early November because many people reserve travel for later in the month, around Thanksgiving. That gave the airlines the flexibility to trim on busy routes, moving passengers from canceled flights to others still operating between the same destinations.
Airlines also focused cuts on less popular regional routes, dropping flights linking tiny airports with larger cities. Flights to small, regional airports can typically accommodate about 50 to 75 passengers, while flights between big cities can often carry twice as many people, if not more. While American cut more than 5% of its schedule Friday, for example, only about 2% of its passengers that day were on affected flights.
Most of the weekend disruption was caused by staffing shortages and the reduction in flying, but airlines were also dealing with more routine problems. At Chicago O’Hare International Airport, for instance, flights were delayed more than half an hour, on average, Sunday afternoon because of runway construction. A snowstorm was forecast for the evening, which could bring further disruption.
American, Delta and United outsource many regional flights to subsidiaries or other carriers such as SkyWest Airlines and Republic Airways, the two operators most affected by the cuts.
By midday Sunday, more than 290 SkyWest flights had been canceled, amounting to about 11% of its schedule for the day, according to FlightAware, an aviation data firm. Republic canceled about 260 flights, or about 23% of its schedule.
Those two airlines mostly operate flights for American, Delta and United and are typically still paid for canceled flights, though they may face added costs to move planes and crews into place for other flights. In a statement Saturday, SkyWest said that cancellations were “being managed days in advance” and that the company continues to operate “the vast majority” of its flights.
Still, most routes, even regional ones, retained at least some service through the weekend, though there were a few examples of carriers dropping routes with one or two flights. (On Sunday, for instance, United cut its only round-trip flight from its hub in Newark, New Jersey, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.)
But airlines generally avoided cutting more congested flights between hub airports or to destinations abroad. Most cuts were carried out by U.S. airlines, though a handful of flights were canceled by international carriers. Many airlines allowed customers to change flights or request refunds, even if they had restrictive, nonrefundable tickets.
Because of the disruptions, some travelers were reconsidering flying, exploring other options, including renting cars, taking buses or trains or just staying home.
Airlines are well practiced at managing flight cancellations caused by myriad factors, such as bad weather, staffing shortages and technological outages. In deciding which flights to cancel, crisis teams use software to help identify candidates to cut and consider a range of factors, including how cancellations will affect the placement of customers, pilots and planes. But there are limits to how much disruption the industry can handle.
“The airlines’ challenges will worsen as the Thanksgiving holiday period approaches,” the credit rating agency Fitch Ratings said in a research note Friday. Thanksgiving is among the busiest travel periods of the year and will “leave little room for airlines to reaccommodate displaced passengers, amplifying revenue loss and customer service costs,” the note said.
The industry escalated calls for an end to the government shutdown, the longest in history, as the flight limits took effect at the end of the week. Airlines for America said that more than 4 million passengers had already experienced delays or cancellations caused by air traffic controller staffing problems since the shutdown began in early October.
“We implore Congress to act with extreme urgency to get the federal government reopened, get federal workers paid and get our airspace back to normal operations,” the group said Friday. A record 31 million people are expected to travel over about a dozen days around Thanksgiving, it added.
The FAA said it was reducing flights to improve safety and relieve air traffic controllers who had been overworked for years, but were under particular stress after working for more than a month without pay.
Some lawmakers and experts questioned the measure, asking the agency to share the data justifying its decision. But others welcomed the proactive approach.
“Pressures are building in the system,” Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said in a social media post last week. “This is safety management, the very foundation of our aviation system, and it’s the right thing to do.”