Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says flight chaos ‘gets worse’ until government shutdown ends

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Sunday that airline flight delays and cancellations will only get worse as the holidays approach unless the government reopens.

As of 5:30 a.m. Sunday, more than 1,100 flights were cancelled across the country, according to the FlightAware website, which tracks delays and cancellations. The disruptions come after the Federal Aviation Administration slashed traffic at 40 major U.S. airports as it grapples with staffing shortages among air traffic controllers, who have been working without pay since the shutdown began.

Mr. Duffy said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that 15 to 20 air traffic controllers are retiring daily because of the government shutdown. 

“I used to have about four controllers retire a day before the shutdown. I’m now up to 15 to 20 a day are retiring,” he said. “So it’s going to be harder for me to come back after the shutdown and have more controllers controlling the airspace.” 

“So this is going to live on in air travel, well beyond the timeframe that this government opens back up,” Mr. Duffy added. 

Saturday saw 1,521 flights canceled nationwide and more than 6,400 flights delayed.

The cuts started with roughly 4% of flights being canceled, followed by 5% on Saturday and will gradually increase to 10% by the end of the week, Transportation Department officials announced.

“As I look two weeks out, as we get closer to Thanksgiving, I think what’s going to happen is you’re going to have air travel slow to a trickle as everyone wants to travel to see their families. I think we’re going to see air traffic controllers, very few of them, coming to work,” Mr. Duffy said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Which means, yes, you’ll have fewer flights taking off and landing at our different airports across the country, but the thousands of flights that happen every day to move people around the country for this great American holiday, it’s not going to happen,’ he continued.

“You’re going to have massive disruption, I think, a lot of angry Americans, and I think we are going to have to be honest about where this is going. It doesn’t get better, it gets worse until these air traffic controllers are going to get paid,” he added.

Mr. Duffy said he had limited options to keep the same number of flights in the air safely. Scores of air traffic controllers have been working six days per week with mandatory overtime since the shutdown began Oct. 1. Absences among controllers have soared as the no-pay workweeks have dragged on, sparking travel disruptions across the country.

Roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration agents are working without pay.

“I” ’m going to have many tools left in my toolbox,” Mr. Duffy said. “It’s only going to get worse. And again, we try to minimize the risk, but when we do that, flights are delayed and canceled.”

He floated the idea of using military air traffic controllers, who he said are currently “in reserve.” But he said he was unsure if they could be deployed to help with civilian air traffic.