With Halloween right around the corner, the holiday travel season is already coming soon and people are already scoping out travel plans. This year, the search is starting under the looming gloom of the ongoing government shutdown.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy even said “I can’t guarantee you that your flight’s going to be on time,” when discussing holiday travel on Capitol Hill this week, per the White House.
“I can’t guarantee you that your flight’s not going to be cancelled,” Duffy added. “It’s going to depend on our air traffic controllers coming in to work every single day… If they do not, we’ll know whose fault it is.”
In a Thursday announcement blaming Democrats for the shutdown (now in its third week), the White House said the halt in government funding has “plunged America’s air traffic control system towards a tailspin.” It added that 13,000 air traffic controllers are working without paychecks or taking second jobs to make ends meet.
These air traffic controllers ensure the safety of about two million aviation passengers per day, according to National Air Traffic Controllers Association data cited by Ohio Today. Ohio University Assistant Professor of Computer Science Chad Mourning, an expert in aviation safety explained that they have a “crucial” role in making sure our skies are safe.
Even without the shutdown impacting operations and pay, the job is stressful. Mourning said that being required to work with little to no pay can also “certainly impact the performance of controllers.”
WROC reported this week that “booking for holiday getaways is already underway,” despite concerns about the shutdown’s impact on travel. CEO Sonia Cittadino of Deprez Travel Company, an expert cited by the outlet, said she has not observed “any inconveniences due to the shutdown, although weather-related issues have occurred.”
While the Trump administration and the GOP have blamed Democrats for the shutdown, Democrats have lobbed some of the blame back across the aisle as they try to negotiate with Republicans on healthcare related issues and more. U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said the shutdown served to “hand more power” to the Trump administration.
“We need a bipartisan solution to address this impending health care crisis, but we should not be swapping the pain of one group of Americans for another,” she said in a Sept. 30 press release. “I remain focused on protecting health care for working families, and I call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work together to tackle this problem.”
Airlines for America, an airline industry trade organization thanked Cortez Mastro in an Oct. 1 Facebook post.
“Thank you Senator Catherine Cortez Masto for understanding that government shutdowns cause disruptions for the flying public, with air traffic controllers, TSA and CBP agents all working without pay,” it said. “We urge Congress to act with urgency to identify a solution that will reopen the government.”
Mourning said we should expect the parties to continue this pattern until the shutdown is eventually over.
“Both sides will continue to blame the other side using every angle they can find, and flight delays will be somewhere on that list,” he explained. “Especially if this goes into the holiday travel season.”