The announcement was made on Wednesday, against a backdrop of budgetary paralysis that has lasted since 1 October. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced a 10% reduction in air traffic capacity. This will take effect from 7 November at the 40 busiest airports in the United States. "It's a matter of determining where the pressure is, and how to alleviate that pressure", said Sean Duffy.
This pressure can be explained by the shutdown that has paralysed the federal budget since 1 October. As a result, between 20 and 40% air traffic controllers are no longer reporting for duty, according to Reuters.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had estimated on 1er November that nearly 50 % of the 30 busiest US airports have experienced shortages of air traffic controllers. The FAA spokesperson said at the time: "Nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers have been working without pay for weeks, ensuring the safety of more than 50,000 daily operations throughout the National Airspace System (NAS). (...) An increase in absences is straining staffing levels at many facilities, causing widespread impacts across the NAS. Currently, half of our 30 major facilities are experiencing staffing shortages, and nearly 80 % of air traffic controllers are absent at facilities in the New York area."
The FAA continued: "After 31 days without pay, air traffic controllers are experiencing immense stress and fatigue. The shutdown must end so that these controllers receive the pay they have earned and travellers can avoid further disruption and delays. As we keep saying, we will never compromise on safety. When staff shortages occur, the FAA will reduce the flow of air traffic to maintain safety. This may result in delays or cancellations". A threat that will come into effect in a few hours' time...
The CEO of United Airlines was quick to respond. Speaking to his teams, Scott Kirby said: "United's long-haul international and hub-to-hub flights will not be affected by this FAA-imposed schedule reduction. This is important to maintain the integrity of our network, provide affected customers with as many options as possible to resume their travel, and maintain our crew scheduling systems. Instead, we will focus our schedule reductions on regional and domestic flights that do not connect our hubs. We will use our app, website and push notifications to communicate directly with customers if their flight changes and offer them rebooking options. We want to provide them with as much information as possible, in a simple and easy-to-understand way. Most importantly, any customer travelling during this period can get a refund if they don't want to fly, even if their flight is not affected," continues Scott Kirby.
