The government has been shut down for a record 39 days, and many aspects of daily life that depend on government funding are feeling short. One of the industries hit hardest is air travel.
Because of the shutdown, travelers across the country are facing long lines at security checkpoints and thousands of flight delays and cancellations as air travel tries to operate at limited capacity.
As of 4 PM ET Sunday, there were already more than 7,500 total drinks in, in or out of the US, according to flaaware data. Delta Airlines, which has already canceled more than 450 flights today told NBC News that more cancellations are expected.
202 Cancellation on Thursday; 1,025 cancellations on Friday; 1,566 cancellations Saturday.
On Saturday there were 7,531 delays and 1,566 cancellations, and on Friday there were 7,017 delays and 1,025 cancellations. For comparison, there were 202 flight cancellations on Thursday, the day before the federal government’s decision to reduce flights went into effect.
Flight cancellations are about as high as you’ll see in a light snow storm, according to the airlines. But the delays and cancellations are only set to grow from here as the shutdown continues, and the winter storm could be worse than expected. “Dangerous to impossible travel conditions will develop” in some parts of Illinois on the night of closing Sunday into Monday because of the snow expected from the storm, according to the latest advisory.
In the event of a government shutdown, many government employees lose their jobs. But others considered essential to the protection of life and property, such as air traffic controllers and TSA agents, are required to work without pay or additional support staff. When there is no payment for them, many of these workers turn to overtime work to make up for the loss. In most cases, air traffic controllers – who were already working overtime to enforce six days a week – drive. 20-40% of the controlled ones do not show activity, according to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford’s from earlier this week.
“We laid off 81 workers across the entire National AirSpace yesterday, which means that regulators are unable to get to work,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday on CNN. “It’s only going to get worse.”
Air traffic controllers are the backbone of safe air travel, and when they go off duty on the planes, they put a lot of pressure on the system.
4% last Friday; 6% on Tuesdays; 10% this coming Friday.
Duffy and the FAA’s solution to that has been to curtail flight at 40 major airports across the country. The decrease started with 4% on Friday, and if the shutdown continues, it will reach 6% on Tuesday, but 10% on Nov. 14.
Duffy warned that the decline could be as much as 20% if the shutdown continues, despite holiday travel approaching the opening thanks to later this month.
“I’m looking at two weeks before Thanksgiving, you’re going to see the air flow reduced to a trickle,” Duffy told CNN. The secretary also warned of “big chaos” at a press conference earlier this week.
The steps are certainly unprecedented.
“I don’t know in my 35-year history in the airline industry where we’ve had a situation where we’ve taken these kinds of steps,” Bedofford said at a press conference this week.
The end may not be near. According to CNN, Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated that there could be a first vote on Sunday on the executive order to reopen the government. The plan does not include an extension to the Department of Affordable Care Funding that Democrats have been discussing, but it is reportedly confirming a Senate vote. Not everyone is close to just the promise.
“I don’t think the House of Democrats is ready to support a promise, a wink and a prayer from people who have abused the health care of the American people for years,” House Minority Leader Hakem Jeffries told NBC on Sunday.
