Shutdown Chaos Grounds America’s Airports
On Thursday, October 30th, many air flights were delayed and some were even cancelled because of the absence of many licensed air traffic controllers. This is the result of the government shutdown, and many government workers having to go without pay.
This shutdown has affected many major airports, with the worst being the Orlando International Airport. This Thursday, it was reported that no new arrivals would be able to land due to the lack of certified air traffic controllers. Later that evening, the average delay was around 2 hours and 40 minutes. Many flights were cancelled, while other people reported to having been delayed for up to 12 hours.
Similarly, inside the John F. Kennedy International Airport, many flights have been halted because of delayed flights, stopped operations caused by storms, and even an aircraft emergency.
Addtionally, in the Ronald Reagan National Airport, just outside of Washington, many flights were suspended and delayed all throughout the evening, due to the shortage of controllers.
went on any further, many more problems will arise. He also stated that if the shutdown stayed for any longer continues, “disaster” could strike. Entering the holiday season, the demand for air travel will rise, and increase the demand for air traffic controllers.
“A lot of our people can go through the miss of one paycheck,” Mr. Duffy said. However, “None of them can get through two paychecks.”
Despite it all, Mr. Duffy still says that air travel is still very safe, arguing that the F.A.A is ensuring that no staff is taking on a greater workload than they can take.
Still, controllers weren’t able to get paid on Tuesday. After the shutdown only 3,000 out of 14,000 air traffic controllers stayed. This caused many of them to be forced to work overtime, to make up for the lack of staff.
Adding on, many passengers feel unsafe traveling by air. Recently, there have been many midair collisions, as well as near runaway misses. This causes the anxiety level to rise in many passengers, as they don’t feel safe about air travel.