Anxiety abounds during first day of FAA flight cuts at Hartsfield-Jackson

Ashley Canty, 35, flew into Atlanta on Friday morning from Roanoke, an experience she said wasn’t too bad but did have longer than usual security lines out of her home airport in Virginia.

It’s heading back to Roanoke on Sunday that she’s nervous about.

“I’m scared for the flight back because Delta has said they’ll be canceling some flights,” she said, calling the shutdown “a mess.”

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered airlines to cut traffic across 40 of the nation’s busiest airports starting Friday to maintain safety as air traffic controllers come under strain from working unpaid for weeks because of the shutdown.

The FAA said the reductions would start at 4% Friday, increase to 6% Tuesday, 8% by next Thursday and 10% next Friday.

And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that the cuts could go up to 20% if the shutdown doesn’t end soon, NBC News reported.

For Friday, the first day of the reductions, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines canceled about 170 of its flights, out of a total of about 5,000 daily flights on Delta and Delta Connection regional carriers.

Comedian Jeff Foxworthy was heading from Atlanta to Portland, Oregon, on Friday morning to perform a few shows over the weekend. His flight took off as planned, but before going through security he said he was a bit wary, hoping Delta didn’t change it last minute.

Credit: Ben Hendren

Credit: Ben Hendren

“If they do, I miss my second show in 41 years,” Foxworthy, 67, said. “It’s very difficult, the idea that I could have a show that sold out months in advance, and I can’t get there.”

Foxworthy said the government shutdown is the “same old, same old” political recalcitrance, but it’s regular Americans who are being hurt.

“They both dig their heels in and then at the end of the day, it’s more about agenda than the people that they serve, because we’re the ones that suffer for this,” Foxworthy said.

Transportation Security Administration officers are also working without pay during the shutdown, and a resolution to the federal budget standoff so far remains uncertain.

Hartsfield-Jackson is Delta’s biggest hub and a vital connection point for the nation. Operations on Friday morning appeared normal with relatively short wait times through security.

There were more than 75 Atlanta flights canceled Friday and more than 60 flights have been canceled for Saturday.

Cancellations on Friday included flights to New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Charlotte, North Carolina, among a number of other cities, according to FlightAware.com.

Delta said it plans to cancel flights a day in advance to give customers options before they head to the airport.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Duffy said in a written statement “our number one job is safety.”

“This isn’t about politics — it’s about assessing the data and alleviating building risk in the system as controllers continue to work without pay,” Duffy said. “It’s safe to fly today, and it will continue to be safe to fly next week because of the proactive actions we are taking.”

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy praised the decision to cancel flights, posting on social media that conducting safety risk assessments and using data to mitigate that risk is what federal aviation officials should be doing “to proactively ensure safety for the traveling public.”

Delta is allowing travelers with flights booked through Nov. 14 to cancel their trips and get refunds or rebook flights by Nov. 21.

The airline said it still expects to operate “the vast majority of our flights as scheduled, including all long-haul international service.”

“We will give customers as much notice as possible about any changes to their flights and apologize for any inconvenience these adjustments may cause,” Delta said.

Other airlines have also put in place policies for refunds or flight changes.

Uncertainty drives worries

The fact that airlines can choose which flights to cancel ahead of time means they should not be as chaotic as last-minute flight cancellations are during a storm, said Mike Taylor, travel practice lead at J.D. Power.

“It’ll be a moderate effect,” Taylor said.

Even though the 40 busiest airports were announced for the cuts, airlines are cutting many of their shorter flights on smaller regional jets that go from those large airports to smaller cities — spreading the impact of the cancellations.

But the biggest problematic factor is the uncertainty of not knowing when the government shutdown will end, and thus having no clear view of how long the flight cancellations will continue.

“Weather passes over a region and leaves,” Taylor said. But, “God knows when this government shutdown is going to end.”

And when flights are canceled just a day or two ahead of time, many other flights are often already close to full, making it tough to find a seat on another flight.

As a result, “I think this is going to have a bit more serious effect on people getting to where they want to go,” Taylor said.

That only increases traveler anxiety.

Many people are canceling trips because of the uncertainty. It could also affect people’s willingness to plan trips for the coming days and weeks.

And there’s also still a risk of delays because of air traffic control staffing shortages, he said.

Credit: Ben Hendren

Credit: Ben Hendren

Mark Todd peered up at the flight status boards in the North Terminal on Friday morning, checking one more time before going through security that his Frontier flight to San Juan hadn’t been canceled.

Todd, 45, was heading to Puerto Rico to celebrate a new job. He’s from Los Angeles but came to Atlanta a day before his trip to visit friends. His flight to San Juan was still operating as usual Friday morning but he was uncertain about his flight back to Los Angeles on Wednesday.

“I don’t know what will happen by then,” Todd said.

Credit: Ben Hendren

Credit: Ben Hendren

Dr. Seg Edie traveled to Atlanta from Minneapolis to visit her family over the weekend. Her travels into the city were smooth, but not too long after landing she said she got an email from Delta that her flight back to Minnesota on Monday might end up being impacted.

“I really, really, really need to get back on Monday,” Edie, 28, said. She’s a resident at the University of Minnesota treating vascular diseases and said she has a full day of patients scheduled once she’s back.

“Not being able to do my job (is) not only affecting me, but impacting other people too, people that need stents and grafts and their life depends on them,” she said. “So I need to get back and I pray that nothing comes to prevent me from going back home.”

For Scott Moore, his travels from Houston were anything but smooth.

Moore said he arrived at George Bush Intercontinental Airport a little after 4 a.m. Friday. But even with TSA PreCheck, it took him 40 minutes to get through security, while standard security lines were more than three hours long.

His Frontier flight was delayed because the flight attendants got stuck in security as well. Once on the ground in Atlanta, his plane sat on the tarmac for over an hour — about as long as his entire flight time — waiting for congested runways to clear and a gate to open.

He said what worries him more than the effects on travel from the government shutdown is that politicians will use people’s frustrations as leverage.

“People will start losing jobs if they can’t fly, including the people working here,” Moore said. “What I’m worried about is that that will force through a budget that doesn’t make sense.”