Trump Administration Ends Flight Cuts At Busy Airports
With the record-breaking federal shutdown over, the Transportation Department said Sunday it is ending a mandate that had led to the cancellation of thousands of flights across the nation.
The 3 percent reductions for domestic flights at 40 busy airports will be canceled at 6 a.m. Monday, DOT and the Federal Aviation Administration announced. That means normal operations can resume across the national airspace as the hectic Thanksgiving holiday week approaches.
“Today’s decision to rescind the [emergency] order reflects the steady decline in staffing concerns,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement.
The department last week froze its cuts at 6 percent, then lowered them to 3 percent, citing an increase in air traffic controllers coming to work. Initially, the reductions had been set to rise to 8 and finally 10 percent.
In a news release Sunday, DOT and the FAA said staffing levels “have continued to snap back into place” since the end of the shutdown.
The cuts had sparked widespread flight cancellations and upped the pressure on lawmakers to avert the spending stalemate.
The reductions followed a wave of flight delays at major travel hubs attributed to shortages of controllers. Significant numbers of these essential workers, who worked without pay during the funding stalemate, called out of their shifts. For many Americans, the turmoil in the airports became one of the most visible impacts of the 43-day shutdown.
DOT had justified the cuts by citing worrying trends in aviation safety data, including a jump in complaints from pilots about controllers being “less responsive” or “more stressed.” The department has not released exact numbers of these incidents.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted the cuts as a political “stunt,” which DOT vehemently denied.
The Sunday news release said the FAA “is aware of reports of non-compliance by carriers” during the order, and the agency “is reviewing and assessing enforcement options.”
The agency previously said it could enforce the restrictions through civil penalties of up to $75,000 for each flight an airline operated above the limits.
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