If you haven’t noticed, it’s November. Halloween has come and gone, and now you only have a couple of weeks before you’re obligated to make the long trek to wherever your family is holding Thanksgiving this year. And once that’s over, you’ll have only a few more weeks before you have to do the whole thing again, this time for Christmas or Hanukkah. It sucks, but it’s even worse if you have to fly. The good news is, this year, flying for the holidays should be even worse now that the Washington Post reports the Trump administration has ordered airlines to offer fewer flights.
Republicans announced plans to reduce air travel by 10% in at least 40 markets on Wednesday, citing the need to make things easier on the air traffic controllers who still aren’t being paid due to the government shutdown. Of course, Republicans could end this shutdown any time they want by either offering Democrats something they want (not taking away healthcare from millions of Americans) in exchange for their votes or changing the rules so they don’t need Democratic votes to pass a budget (getting rid of the filibuster). Instead, they’ve chosen the secret third option (stop paying federal workers while Kash Patel uses the FBI’s jet to go on a date with his girlfriend who definitely isn’t honeypotting him).
At the moment, we don’t know much about what this move will look like, with the administration promising more information on Thursday. It did say the reductions would affect “high traffic” markets across the country, but with the order set to go into effect on Friday, expect no shortage of confusion, delays and flight cancellations. For holiday travelers and even simply hoping to receive the gifts they ordered on time, that’s what those of us in the business call “bad news.” As WaPo pointed out:
The move is unprecedented, and could affect cargo operations as well as commercial travelers. It also has the potential to scramble travel plans in the run-up to the busy Thanksgiving travel period, when record numbers of Americans are expected to be on the move.
Air traffic controllers are in hell right now
While there’s no way to know how bad this decision will be for passengers or how long it will last, at least on paper, air traffic controllers may actually need the temporary relief. They’ve now missed their second paycheck, which only adds to the stress of working a job where one mistake could mean hundreds or even thousands of people die. It’s not like air traffic controllers were doing so great before the shutdown, either. As we learned earlier this year, being overworked, undersupported and underpaid meant many air traffic controllers were already barely holding it together.
The shutdown, meanwhile, has just made things worse for ATC. They still have to do the same job keeping air travelers alive, only now, the bills are piling up at home. Many are calling in sick and doing what they can to earn money in other ways, such as driving for Uber. It’s understandable that they need to keep a roof over their head and put food on the table, but that also means airports across the country are now dealing with regular shortages of air traffic controllers.Â
Yesterday, the Associated Press reports Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy acknowledged the effect the shutdown is having on ATC, telling reporters:
Many of the controllers said, “A lot of us can navigate missing one paycheck. Not everybody, but a lot of us can. None of us can manage missing two paychecks.” So if you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos. You will see mass flight delays. You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it because we don’t have air traffic controllers.
Of course, he refused to acknowledge that Senate Republicans could end this shutdown tomorrow if they wanted to. That would be acknowledging the Republicans who control the entire federal government right now have agency and could make things better if they wanted to, instead of only making everything worse. And we can’t have that now, can we?
