Travelers across the United States were bracing for potential chaos before officials ordered mass flight cancellations due to the longest government shutdown in history.
On Friday, airlines will begin implementing the US Federal Aviation Administration’s order to reduce domestic operations at 40 high-traffic airports for safety reasons.
In its official order published Thursday evening, the FAA said the cuts, which will affect all commercial airlines, will start at 4% on Friday and increase to 10% by Nov. 14.
There were fears that hundreds of thousands of passengers would be affected by the cut without any information.
The measures come just weeks before the Thanksgiving holiday – the busiest time for air travel in the US.
Which US airports will be affected under the FAA directive?
Affected airports include some of the busiest hubs, for example, Atlanta, Miami and San Francisco.
Along with Atlanta Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International, Denver International, Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles International are the five busiest airports in the US.
Many airports in big cities like New York, Houston and Chicago will be affected.
How are US airlines dealing with flight cuts?
Delta was canceling about 170 U.S. flights on Friday, less than it had expected on Saturday due to lower travel volume.
American Airlines cut its schedules by 4% at 40 airports, canceling about 220 flights each day from Friday through Monday.
United announced it plans to cut its flights by 4% from Friday through Sunday, resulting in fewer than 200 daily cancellations.
Southwest Airlines will cancel about 120 flights Friday.
In line with the federal directive, all major airlines were offering customers more flexibility to change or cancel flights.
Why is it necessary to cut American flights?
The FAA is making the cuts due to safety concerns caused by the government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
FAA Administrator Brian Bedford said, “We are not going to wait for a safety problem to materialize when early indicators are telling us that we can take action today to prevent things from getting worse.”
During the shutdown, 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 security inspectors have gone without pay and are increasingly taking sick days.
Most controllers work essentially overtime six days a week, leaving little time for additional jobs to feed their families unless they get sick.
Edited by: Srinivas Majumdaru