Airlines are expected to cancel 6% of their flights at 40 high-traffic airports on Tuesday in compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration mandate amid the government shutdown, despite the Senate passing a preliminary agreement to end the impasse.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 1,100 flights within the U.S. had already been canceled, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware, and more than 850 flights had been delayed. United Airlines posted a list of its canceled flights for Tuesday and Wednesday on its website. The lengthy list covers flights all day and across the entire country, starting at 6 a.m. and lasting until almost 9 p.m.
The affected airports are in major cities such as Chicago, the New York area, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy will provide updates on air travel from Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Monday afternoon.
The FAA last week announced its plan to predetermine the percentage of daily flights to be canceled to accommodate air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration employees who have been working 42 days without pay. On Thursday, the cancellation reduction is supposed to increase to 8% and to 10% by Friday, according to the agency.
The reduction in air travel comes even after eight Democratic senators broke with their party late Monday to pass a bipartisan bill that would end the longest-ever government shutdown. The bill, however, still needs to be passed by the House and then signed by President Donald Trump — who has indicated he supports it — for the government to return to full functionality.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump called out controllers he said were skipping work and suggested a $10,000 bonus for those who worked through the shutdown — even though he admitted he didn’t know where the money would come from.
These workers are considered essential and, therefore, are not allowed to walk off the job, even without a consistent paycheck. While a 2018 law ensures that those who work during a government shutdown will eventually receive back pay, airports have reported staffing shortages and delays in the last month and a half as workers grapple with the uncertainty of not knowing when they’ll next be paid.
Many major airlines have promised customers that they are doing everything possible to ensure they reach their destinations and are increasing flexibility to serve travelers better. But one traveler told NBC News she was on three flights — all of which got canceled.
Complicating matters is the fact that even if the shutdown ends by the end of the week, it may take longer for the flight system to right itself and for flight schedules to return to 100%.
More than 2,400 U.S. flights were canceled Monday, with only 4% canceled as mandated by the FAA. More than 5 million air travelers have been affected by flight delays because airports lacked enough controllers to handle all the traffic, the FAA reported.
Only 11 flights were canceled from Oct. 1 to Oct. 29 due to the same staffing issues, but the number of cancellations jumped to 4,162 from Oct. 30 to Nov. 9.
The vast majority of those cancellations — 3,756 — occurred from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9, when the FAA began mandating flight reductions at the 40 high-traffic airports.
While travelers have told NBC News they are sympathetic to government employees working in airports and in the airspace, Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the strain on controllers puts the public at greater risk.
“This is the erosion of the safety margin the public never sees, but America relies on every single day,” Daniels said at a news conference.
