40 Major Airports Affected By Plan To Maintain ATC Safety

Department of Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced on October 5 that he ordered the FAA to begin reducing the number of commercial flights by 10% at 40 major airports around the country. Prompting the decision are concerns over air traffic safety as the government shutdown extends into a sixth week.

Secretary Duffy said the plan would be reversed if the government reopened.

The plan will be implemented incrementally: Beginning Friday November 7, flights will be reduced by 4%, which will grow to 5% on Saturday, and to 6% on Sunday. The curtailment will expand to 10% in the following week. International flights are exempt from the order.

Since the announcement, both airlines and passengers have been scrambling to adjust flight schedules and travel plans. Airlines have just 36 hours to adjust flight schedules for Friday and beyond and already, tens of thousands of flights have been delayed due to controller shortages.

The move is intended to relieve some of the pressure on the 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 TSA agents who have been working without pay since the shutdown began on October 1.

Passengers have been flooding the airlines’ customer service hotlines with questions and concerns about their upcoming travel plans.

The preliminary list of airports to be affected include New York City’s three major hubs, as well as airports in Washington D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Seattle, and more. This translates into 1,800 flights with 270,000 seats, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Bryan Bedford, FAA Administrator said, “As we start to implement this drawdown in service. It will be restricted to these 40 high volume traffic markets. We’re going to ask the airlines to work with us collaboratively to reduce their schedules.”

Jennifer Homendy, Chair of the NTSB said in a post on X, the drawdown “is the right thing to do,” and “pressures are building in the system.”

Homendy added, “Controllers are dedicated safety professionals,” and Duffy “can’t just ignore it; he took action to mitigate risk and ensure safety. THIS is safety management, the very foundation of our aviation system, and it’s the right thing to do.”

Duffy said, “We are going to proactively make decisions that keep the airspace safe. 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. 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.”

FMI:  www.transportation.gov/ , www.faa.gov/