US flight cuts could reach 20% if situation gets worse, Duffy says - 𝓣𝓸𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽

As airlines began phasing in hundreds of flight cuts, the Transportation Secretary warned the government may cut even more flights if the shutdown drags on.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is warning even more flights could be cut if the situation surrounding the government shutdown and air traffic controllers worsens.

During the first day of airlines phasing in hundreds of flight cuts at some of the country’s busiest airports, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News those cuts could go up to 20% if the shutdown continues.

“Most of the controllers can navigate missing one paycheck, virtually none of them can navigate missing two paychecks,” Duffy said. “So if this shutdown doesn’t end relatively soon, the consequence of that is going to be more controllers don’t come to work, and then we’re going to have to continue to assess the pressure in the airspace and make decisions that may, again, move us from 10% to 15%, maybe to 20.”

Airlines are currently phasing in reductions at the direction of the FAA, starting by eliminating 4% of flights at the targeted airports and building up to 10% by next Friday, according to the agency’s order.

“I don’t want to see (20% cuts), or by the way, if controllers start coming to work and the pressure goes down, we can move those numbers in the other direction,” Duffy said Friday.

The government shutdown is currently is the longest in U.S. history.

The transportation secretary also acknowledged that whenever the shutdown ends, it will take time to end the FAA reductions based on when more air traffic controllers come to work and whether airlines have pre-emptively canceled flights.

“The problem is the airlines have to then put those flights back out for booking again, And so it’s going to take some time for the airlines to respond,” Duffy said. “So once we see more controllers in the towers, then airlines have to respond to that, so it can be, you, know, days, if not a week, before we get back to full forced flights when the shutdown ends.”