U.S. airlines started cancelling hundreds of flights on Friday, hours after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the cuts amid the more-than-month long government shutdown.
The cuts were ordered as air traffic controllers have missed their paychecks due to the government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history. Air traffic control staffing shortages have been disrupting flights at several major U.S. airports, vexing travelers and airline executives alike.
More than 700 U.S. flights were canceled as of 9 a.m. ET Friday, according to aviation data firm Cirium, about 3% of the total schedule for the day. That scale of disruption is fairly common for routine disruptions like major thunderstorms, but the Department of Transportation warned that cancellations could ramp up.
People should be aware:
The reason this is happening is that more and more of the ridiculously overworked ATC staff are done with killing themselves and not even getting a shitty paycheck for it. And, because of assholes like reagan, there are very strict penalties if any of them are deemed to be “striking”.
Even if the government reopens this afternoon and all backpay is paid out… a lot of those ATC folk have found new jobs. And that is going to continue to have knock on effects for years to come.
The FlightAware Misery Map is here to stay.
Oh shit.
This is how you slowly collapse a civilization.
Slowly? It’s been less than a year…
Also, the way travel is operated in America needs major re regulations. Honestly, outside of people traveling for emergencies, we as Americans need to stop giving airlines or money.
This is an odd take. Are you advocating for people to travel by car/train/boat or for people to stop traveling at all (except for emergencies?)