This is not gonna fly!
Up to 20% of flights could be cut in the coming weeks if the government shutdown drags on, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned — as more than 1,000 flights were canceled Friday, with airports in Washington, DC, and Chicago hit the hardest.
“If this continues, and I have more controllers who decide they can’t come to work, can’t control the airspace, but instead have to take a second job — with that, you might see 10% … go to 15% or 20%,” Duffy said at a news event in DC.
The Federal Aviation Administration began cutting flights Friday at 40 major airports — causing at least 1,009 cancellations across the US and more than 4,309 delays, according to Flight Aware — due to air traffic controller staffing shortages.
The axed flights started Friday morning with 4% reductions that will increase by 2% per day to 10% in a week — slashing as many as 1,800 flights and more than 268,000 airline seats, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
The shutdown hit its 38th day Friday, now the longest in US history, and it means that the country’s 13,000 air traffic controllers have been working without pay for five weeks.
The FAA has relentlessly grappled with a shortage of air traffic controllers — the agency is about 3,500 short of targeted staffing levels. And even before the shutdown, many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks.
Duffy later clarified to The Hill that he was speaking theoretically and that there’s no official plan to cut flights by 20%.
“Could it go there? That’s possible. Duffy said. “There’s no plan for that.”
Folks flying to and from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, just outside DC, suffered the biggest travel nightmare Friday with at least 132 canceled flights.
Chicago O’Hare International airport, meanwhile, had 90 nixed flights, followed by Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which canceled 83 as of Friday afternoon.
Anxious travelers were bracing for chaos at major airports across dozens of states, including all three New York City-area hubs.
“I have a big middle finger here for the government right now,” said Pamela Smith, 41, of Asheville, North Carolina, who flew to New York to help her mom move out of her childhood home on Long Island. “It’s really unfair, it’s terrible.”
While her flight to JFK wasn’t canceled, she’s on edge about the one back home Monday.
“I’m still nervous,” she said.
June Jackson, 64, who flew to JFK from West Palm Beach to attend her niece’s nursing school graduation, said she’s expecting the worst as the percentage of cut flights ramps up.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s hurting a lot of people,” she said of the travel-thwarting government shutdown. “It’s very stressful. They’re gonna stop more flights than [they’re] flying.”
Others said their canceled flights cost them time and money.
“I went to check my bag and they said the flight was [canceled] and I was like, ‘What?’” said another traveler, whose flight to Jamaica from JFK was scrapped Friday.
“Because of what is going on, the shutdown, I come here, I spend so much money and I cannot go. It’s [rescheduled] for tomorrow morning,” said the flyer, who asked not to use her name.
“I have to spend so much to come here and if I have to go home, it’s going to cost me $200,” she said of the price of getting to the airport.
“I don’t want to stay, but I can’t go home, so I will just have to rough it.”
Overall, flight interruptions were minimal at Big Apple-area airports with 42 canceled flights at JFK, 47 at LaGuardia Airport and 48 at Newark Liberty International Airport as of Friday afternoon, according to Flight Aware.
Skywest and Southwest airlines had scrapped the most flights, with 178 and 129 canceled, respectively.
Other major high-traffic airports that will be impacted under the flight reduction order include airports in Boston, Houston, Dallas, Denver and Los Angeles.
On Friday, a Department of Transportation spokesperson told The Post the percentage of cut flights is based on data and safety experts.
“What the Secretary is speaking to is that our 10% reduction is a data-driven decision made by non-political safety experts at the FAA who based their decision on the strain our system is currently seeing,” the rep said. “Unprecedented times call for unprecedented actions. We’ll continue to assess the data and adapt as needed.”
The plan to cut flights threatens to disrupt holiday plans for millions of Americans on Thanksgiving, which is traditionally the biggest travel weekend of the year.
“My department has many responsibilities, but our number one job is safety. This isn’t about politics – it’s about assessing the data and alleviating building risk in the system as controllers continue to work without pay,” Duffy said in a statement Friday.
“It’s safe to fly today, and it will continue to be safe to fly next week because of the proactive actions we are taking.”
Earlier in the day, Duffy addressed concerns that the flight cuts were aimed at pressuring Senate Democrats to pass a Republican-crafted, “clean” stopgap to reopen the federal government.
“I’ve had some complaints from Democrats [saying], ‘We want to see the data. … This is political,’” Duffy said at the event in Washington, D.C. “This has not been political. We have worked overtime to make sure that we minimize the impact on the American people.”
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Congressional Republicans slapped down Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s stop-gap “compromise” to end the shutdown Friday — a one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of this year. About 750,000 federal employees have been furloughed since the shutdown began Oct. 1.
Duffy had warned on Tuesday that if the federal government shutdown continued another week, it could lead to “mass chaos” and force him to close some of the national airspace to air traffic.
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