Sen. Moran Statement on FAA’s Plan to Decrease Air Traffic Due to Government Shutdown

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) - Chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation - today released the following statement in response to the announcement by U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy that air traffic will be cut by 10 percent at 40 high-traffic airports beginning Friday if the federal government is still in a shutdown:

"The on-going staffing shortage of air traffic controllers due to the government shutdown has made a reduction in flights a harsh but necessary consequence of this useless shutdown. We must keep our skies safe. It's long-past time to fund the government, pay our air traffic controllers and TSA agents and keep our airspace safe and fully functioning."

Background:

• The U.S. air traffic control (ATC) system already faced staffing shortages before the government shutdown began on October 1st. Since then, the shutdown has worsened the staffing shortage as air traffic controllers are working without pay, leading to a spike in air traffic controller absences.
• DOT stated that 84% of all delay minutes on November 2 were due to staffing shortages. This number is usually 5%.
• Today, more than 2,133 flights in and out of the United States were delayed and 146 were cancelled.
• On October 9, Sen. Moran spoke on the Senate floor about the harmful consequences of the shutdown on the U.S. aviation system.

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