Washington
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The Federal Aviation Administration will reduce flights at dozens of main airports as early as Friday if no shutdown deal is reached, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy introduced at a information convention Wednesday.
Ten % of air traffic at 40 busy airports could be minimize, probably impacting hundreds of flights, although the particulars of what number of and which particular airports will be minimize was not introduced.
“As we start to implement this draw down in service, it will be restricted to these 40 high volume traffic markets,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford mentioned. “We’re going to ask the airlines to work with us collaboratively to reduce their schedules.”
The announcement comes as air traffic controller staffing shortages throughout the shutdown are delaying an growing variety of flights all through the nation. Controllers will miss their second full paycheck subsequent week and a few are taking second jobs to make ends meet or calling in sick in protest.
Controllers, like Transportation Security Administration screeners, are thought-about important staff and should work throughout the shutdown, however usually are not being paid.
The FAA will meet with the airways to debate implementation of the new plan Wednesday evening. Bedford referred to as the change “prescriptive” and “surgical.”
“We are going to proactively make decisions that keep the airspace safe,” Duffy mentioned.
“We have asked (air traffic controllers) to show up for work, but I’m not naive to understand that they’re trying to figure out how they meet their daily obligations,” Duffy mentioned. “Because of that, we have seen staffing pressures throughout our airspace. Those who travel will see that we’ve had more delays. We’ve had more cancelations.”
More than 400 staffing shortages have been reported at FAA facilites since the begin of the shutdown, in accordance with a NCS evaluation. The quantity is greater than 4 instances what was seen on the identical days final 12 months.
The airways had been notified of the plan solely about an hour earlier than it was introduced, an airline supply advised NCS.
“We are working with the federal government to understand all details of the new reduction mandate and will strive to mitigate impacts to passengers and shippers,” Airlines for America, the trade commerce group, mentioned in an announcement.
Bedford mentioned the new measures would additionally transcend business airspace and embrace restrictions on house launches and small plane traffic in sure markets.
“I want to applaud the controllers who continue to come to work on a daily basis keeping our system safe,” Bedford mentioned. “But I also want to recognize the fact that the data is telling us we need to do more.”