US Transportation Secretary warns air travel could reduce to a trickle as government shutdown causes over 2,300 flight cancellations and 8,000 delays
WASHINGTON: US air travel could soon slow to a trickle as the federal government shutdown continues to cause widespread flight disruptions.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned the situation would worsen as Americans prepare for Thanksgiving holiday travel later this month.
“It’s only going to get worse,” Duffy said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“The two weeks before Thanksgiving, you’re going to see air travel be reduced to a trickle.”
By Sunday evening, flight cancellations within the United States and to and from the country had surpassed 2,300.
More than 8,000 flights experienced delays according to data from tracking platform FlightAware.
Newark’s Liberty International Airport was particularly hard hit with 27% of departing flights cancelled.
Forty percent of outbound flights at Newark faced delays during the disruption.
At New York’s LaGuardia Airport, more than half of all departing flights were delayed.
Other severely affected airports included Chicago’s O’Hare and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson.
The Senate took the rare step of meeting Sunday to convene a test-vote on ending the shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that a potential deal was “coming together.”
US media reported the potential deal would include short-term government funding through January.
Duffy warned many Thanksgiving travelers would be unable to fly if the government doesn’t reopen.
“We’re going to see air traffic controllers, very few of them coming to work, which means you’ll have a few flights taking off and landing,” Duffy told Fox News Sunday.
Senator Adam Schiff said Republicans were rejecting a “reasonable” compromise to end the shutdown.
“And the result from the Senate Republicans was ‘no,’ from the House Republicans ‘we are staying on vacation,’ and from the president ‘I’m going out to play golf,’ and that’s where we are while people are hurting,” Schiff said.
Democrats have refused to vote for reopening government unless Affordable Care Act subsidies are extended.
“Let’s just extend the ACA for a year, reopen the government, and then we can negotiate a more permanent fix to this crisis in health care in this country,” Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” – AFP
