Disgruntled travelers across the US will face more disruptions to their plans this weekend, as airlines cancel hundreds of additional flights and delays continue to mount due to air traffic controller staffing shortages amid a government shutdown with no end in sight.
More than 1,700 flights have been canceled from Friday through Sunday, data from Cirium shows, as airlines start to implement a 4% reduction in domestic flights at 40 of the busiest airports mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration.
But the cuts – which officials say are aimed at keeping air travel safe while some of the air traffic controllers and federal security screeners missing paychecks are not showing up to work – haven’t prevented thousands of hourslong delays that have left flyers scrambling to figure out how to get to their destinations.
“I just don’t want to be stranded at the airport sleeping on a bench,” Michele Cuthbert of Columbus, Ohio, told The Associated Press, expressing concern about possible flight cancellations ahead of her trip to Dallas.
Over the next week, airlines will ramp up flight cancellations to 10% by next Friday if the government shutdown remains unsolved. And the shutdown will likely disrupt holiday travel plans if no deal is reached after next week, plunging flyers into “uncharted territory,” said former FAA deputy administrator Dan Elwell.
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