Flight delays soar past 1,660 as government shutdown hits Day 27 | Latest Travel News
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (GWN) -Air journey turmoil deepened with more than 1,660 flights delayed nationwide on Monday and more than 8,600 delays on Sunday, with air visitors controller absences surging amid a federal government shutdown now in its twenty seventh day.
The Federal Aviation Administration cited staffing shortages affecting flights across the Southeast and at Newark Airport in New Jersey, while the FAA imposed a ground delay at Los Angeles International that delayed flights by an average of 25 minutes.
Southwest Airlines had 45%, or 2,000, of its flights delayed on Sunday, while American Airlines had almost 1,200, or a third, of its flights delayed, according to FlightConscious, a flight-tracking web site. United Airlines had 24%, or 739, of its flights delayed and Delta Air Lines had 17%, or 610, of its flights delayed.
A U.S. Department of Transportation official said 44% of Sunday’s delays stemmed from controller absences — up sharply from the standard 5%.
Roughly 13,000 air visitors controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must work without pay and will miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday.
The mounting delays and cancellations are fueling public frustration and intensifying scrutiny of the shutdown’s affect, raising stress on lawmakers to resolve the price range deadlock.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Howard Goller)
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