JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Airlines have begun canceling hundreds of flights to comply with an order from the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency says this move is necessary to keep the airspace safe, as it deals with a persistent shortage of air traffic controllers during the ongoing government shutdown. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says, reductions are set to hit 10% of flights at dozens of high-traffic airports next week, and Duffy told Fox News today there could be even more cuts ahead.
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SEAN DUFFY: 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.
SUMMERS: NPR transportation correspondent Joel Rose is here with more. Hey there.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hey there.
SUMMERS: Joel, this doesn't sound like great news if you've got to get on a plane anytime soon. What can you tell us about how these cuts might work?
ROSE: Yeah. Late Thursday, the FAA officially released the list of these 40 major airports where it is aiming to reduce the number of flights, it includes some major airline hubs - Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, many more. But the effects will also ripple out and touch many smaller airports that have flights that connect with those bigger hubs. The FAA's plan requires airlines to phase in the cuts gradually, so these airlines are going to cut about 4% of flights this weekend and then gradually work their way up to 10% by next Friday. The airlines have some discretion to decide how they're going to hit those targets. So I think it's likely that they're going to try to protect their most popular and most profitable routes. And we also know these reductions will not apply to international flights, only to domestic.
SUMMERS: Do you have a sense of how big an impact this will have on airline operations?
ROSE: The major airlines are trying to downplay the impact of these reductions. Delta Airlines said that it would operate the vast majority of its flights as scheduled, but that the frequency of those flights to some destinations might be limited. American airlines said the impact would be mostly on its regional flights, and United Airlines has published a full list of the flights that it is canceling through the weekend. And it includes flights to or from many smaller markets, places like Moline, Illinois, Shreveport, Louisiana, Grand Junction, Colorado, and Fresno, California. So, you know, we may see that these mid-sized and regional airports that don't have as many flights to begin with, they are probably going to share in this pain, too.
SUMMERS: I think a big question for a lot of travelers is why all of this is happening right now?
ROSE: There is debate over whether this is really about safety or politics. The government shutdown is clearly taking a toll on air traffic controllers who are required to work without pay. Some have taken on second jobs, and many are calling out sick. Overall, though, the air traffic control system had been working fairly well during the shutdown until this past weekend. That is when we did see staffing shortages at dozens of facilities all at once. Chris Sununu is the head of Airlines For America. It's an airline industry trade group. He is also a former Republican governor of New Hampshire. Sununu spoke to NPR's Morning Edition today.
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CHRIS SUNUNU: It is all about safety. Trust me, the airlines have - are at the risk of losing hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.
LEILA FADEL: Yeah.
SUNUNU: They're not doing that just for political moves. They're doing it because they know safety is absolutely paramount. Pressures are absolutely growing.
ROSE: You know, not everyone shares that view, however, of what is happening. To the Trump administration's critics, this move does appear to be about politics, as well. Congressman Steve Cohen from Tennessee is a Democrat and the former ranking member of the House subcommittee that oversees aviation. And in a statement, he said that this is a, quote, "political move by the Trump administration," unquote, to try to force Democrats' hands as this government shutdown drags on.
SUMMERS: Joel, one more thing, do you know how the FAA picked which 40 airports to target for these reductions?
ROSE: You know, it is not entirely clear. The FAA administrator says the agency was trying to, quote, "put the relief where the relief will do the most good." And, you know, the list does include some of the places that have had persistent staffing shortages, but it does not include some airports that you would also have expected to see, including Nashville and Austin, which, even today, had long ground delays because of staffing shortages. And then there are some puzzling choices that are on the list, including Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Alaska. The airport is a major hub for cargo that's arriving from Asia, but the FAA has not reported significant shortages of air traffic controllers at the airport or the facilities that manage its traffic. So kind of hard to understand why that one is seeing these cuts.
SUMMERS: NPR's Joel Rose. Thank you.
ROSE: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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