The USA has been in a shutdown for 37 days now: Democrats and Republicans are arguing over the budget. The shutdown is also affecting air traffic: US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Wednesday that he would order a reduction in air traffic of up to ten percent at 40 major US airports. The whole thing is supposed to start on Friday. The reason: bottlenecks in air traffic control due to the shutdown.
Air traffic controllers don’t get paid
The US Parliament has not passed a budget. This has meant that air traffic controllers are currently not being paid. According to US Transportation Secretary Duffy, many are now taking on part-time jobs because of this. The consequences: a lack of staff and tens of thousands of delayed flights since the shutdown began.
US media report that Transportation Secretary Duffy and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wanted to meet with the airlines on Wednesday and will then release more details later today. The AP news agency reports on a list that was sent to airlines today. It shows that airports with the highest traffic volumes in the US are affected, including Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Orlando, Miami and San Francisco. In major cities such as New York, Houston and Chicago, several airports are affected by the cancellations. According to the Reuters news agency, the FAA plans to exclude international flights from the cuts.
What do the flight cancellations mean for travelers?
The German Travel Association (DRV) is also waiting for the more precise details that the US aviation authority FAA wants to publish today. A spokesman for the DRV said that package travelers in particular do not have to worry: If a flight connection is canceled, the tour operators will rebook the guests or provide a replacement.
When booking individually compiled individual services, travelers would have to take care of it themselves and, for example, contact the airline concerned. The flight rights portal Flightright assumes “that a government shutdown should clearly be viewed as an exceptional circumstance over which airlines have no influence.” For this reason, compensation under the EU Air Passenger Rights Regulation is generally excluded.
Major US airlines such as United and Southwest have communicated that they will inform their customers of any irregularities as quickly as possible. A spokeswoman for Lufthansa said that they were currently “examining any impact on the flight schedules of the Lufthansa Group Airlines”.
It is not yet possible to predict how long the cuts will last. Probably as soon as government business resumes in the USA and what is now the longest shutdown in US history comes to an end.
