More than 1,000 flights were delayed or canceled Saturday as airports across the U.S. adhere to the Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) decision to reduce flight capacity amid staffing shortages inflamed by the government shutdown.
A total of 1,093 flights were delayed, while 805 flights have been canceled, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. These numbers do not distinguish between those caused by the FAA’s reduction and regular maintenance or weather delays.
Fewer flights on Saturday will be cut compared to Friday due to a lower overall volume, according to the administration. For example, United Airlines will cancel 168 flights, whereas that number was at 184 on Friday. Southwest Airlines is expected to shed less than 100 flights, while on Friday it was around 120, according to the airlines.
John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York so far saw the highest number of delays at 40 and cancelations at 10, as of Saturday morning. Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) came in second with 32 delays and 11 cancelations. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) Airport was next with only four delays but 16 cancellations.
JFK and ATL are among the 40 airports impacted by the FAA’s directive that have seen a strong decrease in air traffic controller staffing, The New York Times reported.
Flight cancelations across all commercial airlines are expected to increase cuts following Friday’s 4 percent reduction. Nov. 11, Veterans Day, will see a 6 percent increase in reductions, followed by 8 percent by Nov. 13 and 10 percent by Nov. 14.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday that airports could experience as high as 20 percent flight reductions if shutdown — now on day 39 — drags on.
Of the major airlines, Southwest saw the highest number of delays and cancelations as of Saturday morning. About 11 percent, or 383, flights were delayed while 104 were canceled.
United canceled 62 flights and saw 73 delays. American Airlines saw 94 delays and 41 cancelations, followed by Delta Air Lines with 61 delays and 39 cancelations.
American, however, said it will carry out the majority of its flight schedule. Despite the FAA’s request, the airline said in a statement that it is “avoiding cancellations for long-haul international flights and minimizing cancellations on hub-to-hub routes.”
“A travel alert has been issued that allows customers additional flexibility and to request a refund without any penalty if they are traveling during the impact period,” officials added.
American outlined earlier this week that it expects to cancel 220 flights per day. Among the other airlines, United said it will cancel less than 200 flights, Delta Air Lines will decrease by 170 flights and Southwest plans to cut around 120 per day.
Following Department of Transportation guidelines, airlines must give passengers a refund if they are at the airport and cannot reschedule their trip. However, individual travelers are not entitled to compensation from the airline companies.
Friday saw a total of 1,524 cancelations and 24,363 delays, according to FlightAware.
The flight reductions are intended to improve safety across the nation’s airports while staffing shortages and an increase in call-outs among air traffic controllers — who work without pay during a shutdown, including mandatory overtime — continue, according to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.
“We’re not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators are telling us we can take action today to prevent things from deteriorating,” Bedford said earlier this week during a press conference.
If the shutdown does not end by Nov. 11, Duffy warned on Tuesday that the country’s air travel system “will see mass chaos” and could result in closing certain airspace areas “because we just cannot manage it, because we don’t have the air traffic controllers.”
“With this shutdown, it would be dishonest to say that more risk is not injected into the system. There is more risk in the system,” the Transportation chief added.
Duffy tagged on an additional warning on Thursday, saying that if the shutdown continues past Thanksgiving, “it’s going to be rough” for anyone planning to travel by flight.
