United States: Trump administration suspends thousands of flights due to shutdown

UNITED STATES.— The budget shutdown, which has lasted for over a month, is beginning to severely affect air travel. The government announced on Wednesday a 10% reduction in traffic at 40 of the country's busiest airports, due to a shortage of air traffic controllers, many of whom have not been paid since the start of the shutdown.

“We are missing 2,000 air traffic controllers,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, asking airlines to cancel thousands of flights starting Friday. Due to a lack of agreement in Congress on the federal budget, the country has entered its 36th consecutive day of gridlock, a historic record.

More than 60,000 air traffic controllers and security agents are forced to work without pay. Some of them are now no longer reporting to their posts, weakening the air system's ability to ensure traffic safety.

Bryan Bedford, Director of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), assured that the situation remained extremely safe, while acknowledging a very unusual situation. On average, the FAA supervises 44,000 flights per day; the cancellation of 10% of these represents more than 4,000 flights canceled daily.

If the crisis continues, further traffic reductions could be imposed, the FAA warns. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of federal employees remain unpaid, inviting increasing political pressure to end the shutdown.

Jean Mapou