Reductions in air travel will be made at 40 “high-volume” airports around the country on Friday if the government shutdown does not end, Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials announced Wednesday.
The ongoing gridlock, which just broke the 35-day record for longest shutdown, has already caused halts and delays on flights going into major airports as they struggle with staffing shortages of air traffic controllers.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said his agency “can’t ignore” the problems the shortages have been causing during a Wednesday press conference, the Associated Press reported.
DOT Sec. Sean Duffy outlined measures the federal government will be taking as the shutdown continues to impact air travel, announcing that there is “going to be a 10 percent reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations.”
The restrictions will go into effect on Friday and will impact roughly 4,000 flights nationwide, Fox Business explained.
The FAA noted that the 40 locations would be “high-volume” airports.
Duffy’s announcement came just a day after he warned that DOT may be forced to “close certain parts of the airspace” should the shutdown continue into next week.
“The longer this goes on, every day these hardworking Americans have bills they have to pay, and they’re being forced to make decisions and choices,” he said of air traffic controllers struggling to make ends meet. “Do they go to work as an air traffic controller, or do they have to find a different job to get resources, money, to put food on their table, to put gas in their car. As every day goes by, I think the problem is going to only get worse, not better.”
“If you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos,” he continued, pointing to the Senate Democrats refusing to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR) to reopen the government. “You will see mass flight delays, you’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace because we just can not manage it, because we don’t have the air traffic controllers.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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