(Adnkronos) – The Trump administration has announced that starting tomorrow, air traffic will be cut by 10% at 40 major airports in the country, to ease pressure on air traffic controllers who will lose another paycheck next week, with the shutdown on its 37th day, the longest in American history after surpassing the 34 days of Donald Trump’s first presidency, reaching its 37th day.
The reduction is expected to increase flight delays and cancellations that American travelers are already experiencing since the start of the shutdown, just as the country approaches what is considered one of the peaks of air traffic for Thanksgiving at the end of the month. The airports where reductions will take effect tomorrow will be announced today, with an estimated overall cut of over 44,000 flights per day, 1800 just tomorrow immediately after implementation.
“There will be frustration, but ultimately our sole responsibility is to ensure we keep the airspace as safe as possible,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, announcing the measure which comes after the shutdown is causing problems due to the absence of Federal Aviation Administration employees.
“It’s about identifying the pressure and alleviating it,” added Duffy, who on several occasions during these weeks of shutdown has pointed the finger at Democrats, holding them responsible for problems in air transport due to their lack of support in the Senate for the bridge measure to reopen the government. For over a month now, Democrats have been demanding that federal subsidies for Obamacare and other healthcare funding, which were cut by Trump and the Republican-majority Congress, be included in this measure.
Rick Larsen, the Democratic leader on the House Transportation Committee, responded to Duffy by saying that air traffic controllers are forced to work without pay because Republicans “refuse to fix the healthcare system crisis they created and reopen the government,” accusing the majority of using aviation workers as “political cover.”
