Wednesday evening, The longest government shutdown in US history has ended. Fliers are also hopeful that they will eliminate the suspicious viewer of flight cancellations and flight delays. Thanksgiving is coming, and on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, it’s the busiest travel day of the year.
Travelers should expect delays and cancellations, aviation experts say, as airlines get their groups and planes back to the area after weeks of shortages in prime spots. Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration began requiring airlines to cancel flights, up to 6 percent of them earlier this week at 40 airports, some of the busiest in the country. The agency said the move was necessary to keep AirSpace safe as administrators and security professionals missed their second straight paychecks. The consequences of that decision were compounded by an insufficient number of regulators at work, leading to delays and layoffs across the country.
Over the next few days, however, it will be difficult to sort out shutdown-related delays from the chaos of the holiday season. “It’s going to be difficult to do everything up and running fast,” said Tim Kiefer, a former air traffic controller who is now a professor at EMBRY-Drylle Aeronautical University. “But you were experiencing delays due to weather, equipment issues, or staffing issues, whether there was a government shutdown or not.”
“Airlines cannot turn off the switch and resume normal operations immediately after the vote – there will be residual effects for days,” said Chris Sununu, president and CEO of American Airlines, in a written statement.
Some of the residual effects may be long-lasting, as employees in the airline industry face disruptions to their work and work and Payroll. Federal workers have gone through four shutdowns in the past two decades. Controllers in particular have worked long hours amid a shortage of workers for almost 15 years, such as the retirement age of 56, and the disruption of the Covil-era in training has made it difficult to find new certified controllers and become buildings. It can take about two years – and as long as five – to train new employees to become air traffic controllers.
Unlike in previous fires, the FAA kept its Academy open in Oklahoma City, so the employees did not have to stop their training (although they and their instructors went without pay). However, the process of hiring new administrators has been halted during the shutdown. The FAA did not respond to questions about how to restart the hiring process.
“Does this stop him from hiring?” said kiefer. “There is power [prospective controllers] Saying, ‘I don’t want to go through the process of being assigned every 16 months and not getting paid.’ “
And speaking of Pay: It could take weeks for federal workers to return to work. In 2019, Kiefer said, he didn’t get his full funding until about five weeks after Congress reopened the government.
