Earlier, I covered how United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that we could start to see airspace in the United States close as of next week, as a result of the government shutdown. That raised questions as to whether that was a prediction or a threat. Well, there’s now an update, and it’ll start to impact many passengers before the end of the week.
Officially, the logic here is that this is because air traffic controllers aren’t getting paychecks right now, so there’s an increase in fatigue and sick calls. That being said, one wonders what data is being used to determine the optimum number of flights to cancel, since for the most part, flights are still operating pretty smoothly. Furthermore, air traffic controllers not showing up to work is pretty hard to predict.
If this shutdown drags on much longer and we see air traffic controllers call in sick on a very widespread basis, then a 10% flight reduction won’t do squat. So I guess the idea is to do something, though this strikes me as rather random.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
