The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it would cut 10 percent of air traffic in 40 of the nation’s busiest markets, in a move that analysts said would force airlines to cancel thousands of flights while the administration tries to force Democrats to end the government shutdown.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the cancellations were an attempt to “alleviate the pressure” on air traffic controllers, who have not been paid since mid-October. He said the administration would announce the affected markets on Thursday, as the year’s busiest travel season approaches.
The cuts would take effect on Friday, potentially forcing hundreds of thousands of travelers to suddenly change plans and pushing airlines to slash capacity across their routes.
Cirium, an aviation data firm, estimated that the cuts could result in 1,800 canceled flights on Friday alone, said Mike Arnot, a spokesman.
Mr. Duffy has been sounding an alarm about the pressures on the Federal Aviation Administration’s force of certified air traffic controllers, most of whom were already working overtime shifts to compensate for about 3,000 vacancies among its 14,000 positions before the shutdown. Controllers, who are required to work through the shutdown without salary, are facing their second missed paycheck on Tuesday.
“We are going to proactively make decisions to keep the airspace safe,” Mr. Duffy said at a news conference.
Mr. Duffy warned earlier this week that if the shutdown went on, the F.A.A. could close parts of the national airspace to traffic. His Wednesday announcement marked a step in that direction, as he and Bryan Bedford, the F.A.A. administrator, warned that if staffing issues worsened, more restrictions could be implemented.
“We’re not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators tell us we can take action today,” Mr. Bedford said, adding that they planned to work with the airlines to draw back schedules over the next 48 hours.
It was not immediately clear what had prompted the change in approach. Though controller absences led to a raft of significant delays on Halloween and affected operations in some large markets through the weekend, interruptions have been comparatively benign since the start of the work week. Mr. Duffy and Mr. Bedford said their decision had been driven by data.
“We’re not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators tell us we can take action today to prevent things from deteriorating,” Mr. Bedford said, adding that the F.A.A. was working with the airline industry to determine which routes ought to be scaled back.
The reductions will not affect just commercial travel. In certain markets, they will also include restrictions on space launches and aircraft operating under visual flight rules, Mr. Duffy and Mr. Bedford said, explaining that those operations complicated the already difficult jobs of air traffic controllers.
Mr. Bedford, a 35-year veteran of the aviation industry, added that the moves were without precedent in his experience. But he said the situation — a shutdown that entered its 36th day on Wednesday, making it the longest on record — was also without precedent.
“We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns,” he said. But he added that after a January midair crash outside Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, surveillance of the national airspace had changed from what it had been even a year ago.
“These are unusual times, and we look forward to a time when we can get back to business as usual,” Mr. Bedford said.
Christine Chung contributed reporting.
Karoun Demirjian is a breaking news reporter for The Times.
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