MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The government shutdown is about to have a big impact on air travel. The Federal Aviation Administration is moving to reduce air traffic by 10% at dozens of major airports starting tomorrow. FAA administrator Bryan Bedford says these cuts are necessary to keep the airspace safe as the agency deals with a shortage of air traffic controllers.
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BRYAN BEDFORD: When we sees (ph) pressures building in these 40 markets, we just can't ignore it, you know? And we're not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators are telling us we can take action today to prevent, you know, things from deteriorating.
KELLY: But there are a lot of questions about this planned reduction in air traffic, including what it will mean for airlines and air travelers. NPR transportation correspondent Joel Rose has been trying to find us some answers. Hey, Joel.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Start with the basics. Just exactly how are they thinking this is going to work?
ROSE: Yeah. The airlines have received a preliminary list of 40 major airports from the FAA that will be affected by these reductions, including some major hubs - Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Newark, New Jersey. The airlines say they will be phasing these cancellations in gradually. For example, United says it will be cutting 4% of flights tomorrow, gradually working up to 10% by next week. The airlines are saying this will not affect international flights, only domestic, which is good news for the big airlines because those international flights account for a big chunk of their profits.
KELLY: And what kind of news is it for those of us who are about to board planes? I'm raising my hand. I'm flying this weekend, I hope.
ROSE: Well, it's hard to say. Delta Airlines said today it would operate the vast majority of its flights as scheduled. United says this is not a high-demand time of year to fly, so the airline does have empty seats, and it's optimistic that it can accommodate most ticketholders. But travelers like you are understandably worried. Our member station WABE spoke to a woman named Ellen Silva, who had just arrived in Atlanta today on Southwest Airlines. Silva is supposed to fly back to Baltimore on Tuesday, and she is concerned about what could happen if that flight is canceled.
ELLEN SILVA: I would miss work, and I'd have some very unhappy people that I work for 'cause they depend on me so they can travel. And if I'm not there, they can't leave.
KELLY: Yeah. I want to say thank you to all of the TSA workers who are on the job despite not having gotten a paycheck for a while now, which prompts that question, why is this happening right now?
ROSE: Well, the official explanation from the FAA, as we heard at the top, is that it's necessary for safety. The government shutdown is clearly taking a toll on air traffic controllers who are required to work without pay.
KELLY: Yeah.
ROSE: Some of them have taken on second jobs. Many are calling out sick. And overall, the air traffic control system had been working fairly well during the shutdown until this past weekend, when we did see some staffing shortages at dozens of facilities around the same time. And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said yesterday, the decision to reduce air traffic was based on data.
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SEAN DUFFY: This was not taken lightly. We will drive these decisions based on the data that we receive and make the best calls that we can to keep those who travel through the airspace safe.
ROSE: Duffy was asked exactly what data administrators were looking at and did not say. There's a lot of speculation online, including from some air traffic controllers that this is mainly a PR move or a political move that's related to negotiations to end the government shutdown. It's also possible that more than one of these explanations could be true at the same time. In other words, it could be about safety or politics or both.
KELLY: Bottom line, for those of us hoping to fly in the next few days, where do you put the chances of complete chaos?
ROSE: Well, a spokesman for NPR told - a spokesman for United - excuse me - told NPR today, this is not all that different from what airlines do during the summer to adjust for a major thunderstorm. But this is bigger than just a thunderstorm in one part of the country. This is 40 airports all at once. So it's hard to predict.
KELLY: No real precedent for something in this scale. NPR's Joel Rose. Thanks.
ROSE: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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