Sandra Pleites has been looking forward to visiting her sister for months, trading in the fresh New Jersey weather for a sun-soaked trip with her kids to San Diego.
Once a year, one side of the family has a plane ride and the sweaters break to the other coast to spend some quality time together. Clengte booked an airbnb for her, along with her two children, secured a rental car and was busy planning a business trip.
But the government shutdown threw him — and thousands of other travelers — a big curveball this week.
As of Friday morning, today’s flights were canceled, according to the airline, and the situation was set to worsen.
Airlines across the country, including San Francisco International, are experiencing significant delays on Friday due to a staff shortage.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced earlier this week that it plans to cut traffic by 10% at 40 airports across the country to close its second tour.
The shutdown has already sparked labor shortages and occasional flight delays and cancellations over the past month. But the full grounding began on Friday and could continue to worsen over the coming days.
Major airports such as Hartsfield-Jartson Atlanta International Airport and Chicago O’Hare International Airport saw several cancellations Friday morning. But California, with five of its airports including Los Angeles International Airport hit by flight cancellations, was particularly hard hit.
More than 50 flights were canceled and diverted from LAX on Friday morning, with 27 flights canceled for departure and 24 arrivals. SAN and San Diego International Airport are also seeing many flight cancellations.
More flights will be cut as the FAA scales back air travel to pressure air traffic controllers, who have been working unpaid during the shutdown. According to the urgent order Released by the Trump Administration on Thursday evening, airlines should cut flights by 4% on Friday and go up to 6% on Tuesday, 8% on Thursday and 10% on November 14.
Authorities urged passengers to check with airlines about the status of their flights and warned that flights can be canceled at short notice.
The situation has left travelers angry and concerned. Some have tried to move their travel plans, hoping to avoid the worst of the cutbacks, while others are trying to find alternatives if their flights are canceled.
“It was supposed to be a fun, long weekend visiting my sister, but now I’m not sure if it’s going to happen,” Pleites said. “I’m really upset and frustrated because I was really excited about this trip.”
About 13,000 air traffic controllers have been working without pay for weeks, resulting in high levels of fatigue and stress among workers tasked with keeping the skies safe. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said the flight reductions were a result of concerns that staffing pressures could jeopardize safety.
“What we’re finding is that our air traffic controllers, because of financial pressures at home, need side jobs. They need to put money on the table, paper in the car, pay their expenses,” said Duffy.
“We don’t want to see disruption at the FAA or here [the Department of Transportation]. We don’t want that. But the No. 1 The most important thing is to make sure that you are traveling safely. “
The Department of Transportation said the decision to impose the cuts was prompted by the FAA’s reading of aviation safety data: The safety reports, which are confidential, show that it shows increasing pressure on the system, increasing safety risks.
“This isn’t about politics – it’s about evaluating data and reducing the risks building in the system as regulators continue to operate without pay,” Duffy said in a statement. “It is safe to fly today, and it will continue to be safe to fly next week because of the proactive actions we are taking.”
Pressed Friday about the implications, Duffy told CBS Friday: “If people want to ask us, I would throw it at them: Open the government.”
The decision to cut the flights intensified the tension between Republicans and Democrats in the center of the country. Washington Rep. Rick Larsen, the top Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, asked them if safety was a key motivation in the decision to cut flights, ”
The cuts could affect about 1,800 flights and 268,000 passengers in the US per day, according to Aviation Analytics firm Cirium. About 72 flights per day could be cut at LAX, affecting 12,371 passengers. An additional 105 flights could be canceled at four other California airports targeted for reductions, Cirium estimated.
It can be difficult for airlines to rebook passengers after cancellations because planes are often flying now or very close, said Mark Hansen, a professor of environmental engineering at UC Berkeley.
“One thing they said they would do, which makes sense, is they’re going to focus on what they call small jet aircraft, and it’s usually caused by small aircraft,” Hansen said.
For travelers, the uncertainty of whether their flights will be affected has left them in limbo.
There was no way Kathryn McMiller of Seal Beach was going to risk being delayed because of a flight cancellation, so she wanted to postpone her trip this month to visit her brother and sister in Orlando.
There was not much arrival as far as he was concerned, he said, said the 69-year-old, but it is possible that this trip back home was delayed due to the ongoing closure.
He decided to cancel his Southwest flight on Tuesday, days before news of the impending flight cuts.
“I actually have to go back on December 3rd and I’m worried that the government shutdown is going to last longer,” McMiller said. “I just thought I’d stick with all these people and try to track down the hotel. I shouldn’t.”
Leslie Nash of Long Beach waited as long as possible before calling her 60th birthday trip to Hawaii with her sister; He was forced to cancel on Thursday or risk losing his hotel room and rental car refund.
“It’s a national problem on my end,” he said. “I can always rearrange, but it just sucks.”
“In the face of the government shutdown, the migrant attack in Southern California, the general hacking of American politics and now the roadblocks,” Nash said. “Can we have fun?”
At LAX on Thursday, terminals said domestic flights and American flights were as busy as usual, with travelers thankful for the rush before the reduction was reduced.
“We’re getting out of the Dodge before it gets too bad,” Dale Eckerman, 85, said as he sat with his wife, Paula Carroll, near the American Airlines boarding gate.
ECherman and Carroll, 75, achieved good, old-fashioned luck as they chose dates and times for their annual trip to visit their son in Los Angeles. Although some flights to Boston were experiencing minor delays on Thursday, their flights continued as scheduled.
If they had decided to travel back to Cape Cod — their home of the past 15 years — on Friday, their travel experience might have looked different, Carroll said.
“We’re lucky,” Carroll said. “We shouldn’t have changed our plans.”
Stephanie Sanchez, 28, and her husband, Dani, were preparing to head to safety after arriving on Thursday morning excited to start their vacation without their three and 6-year-old daughters.
They weren’t expecting a delay, but their flight home on Monday could be a different story, it said.
American Airlines sent them an email alerting them to the FAA’s order to reduce flight schedules, but the airlines noted that it expects that “a lot of our customers’ flights will not work.”
Customers whose flights have been canceled will be able to change their flight or request a refund without penalty, depending on the flight. United also announced any customer during the flight reduction period is eligible for a refund if they decide not to fly, even if their flight is affected.
“Hopefully we’re good now, and we’ll see if it’s on the way back,” Stephanie Sanchez said. “Fingers crossed.”
