Bay Area air travelers confront cancellations as federal shutdown drags on – The Press Democrat

As reductions in flight traffic mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration took effect Friday morning — prompted by the government shutdown, now into its sixth week — travelers arriving at Bay Area airports faced significant flight delays and cancellations.

The FAA announced Wednesday that it would reduce air traffic by 10% at 40 major aviation hubs across the country to maintain safety as air traffic controllers show signs of strain, including at San Francisco International Airport and Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport.

Air traffic controllers have been working unpaid since the shutdown began Oct. 1, and most have been on duty six days a week while putting in mandatory overtime. With some calling out of work due to frustration, taking second jobs or not having money for child care or gas, staffing shortages during some shifts have led to flight delays at a number of U.S. airports.

SFO was put into a ground stop shortly before 4 a.m. Friday due to staffing, which was canceled shortly later when a ground delay program was implemented, according to advisories issued by the FAA.

Doug Yakel, spokesperson for SFO, said that the ground delay program was due to low clouds and fog and only impacted short-haul flights along the West Coast. Transcontinental and international flights were not impacted by the delays. As of 4 a.m., the airport was experiencing average ground delays of one hour and six minutes, according to an FAA advisory. On Friday morning, 90 flights were delayed, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.

According to FlightAware, 45 flights were canceled into or out of the airport as of Friday morning. Of those cancellations, 39 were announced Thursday, Yakel said.

“Most of these came with advance notification to customers,” he said. “(It’s) probably fair to say the 39 were related to the FAA order given the advance nature of those cancellations.”

Kaley Skantz, public information officer for OAK, confirmed Friday morning that the airport was one of those impacted by the airspace reductions. As of 9 a.m., the airport had seen four canceled departures and five canceled arrivals. By 10 a.m., three additional flights were canceled into or out of the airport for a total of 12, according to FlightAware.

“The airlines that serve OAK are responsible for modifying their schedules to accommodate the new order,” Skantz said. “We will continue working with our airline partners and the FAA to minimize impacts to airport operations and travelers.”

Though operations seemed to be running as usual at OAK Friday morning, with relatively short security lines, the flight reductions had spiked anxiety for some fliers. Larina McClain arrived “way earlier” than she had to for her flight from Denver International Airport to OAK.

“I have CLEAR, so I was able to fly through the three hour line at DIA,” she said. “I hope I make it back when I head home on Sunday.”

Skantz added that those who are traveling in the coming days should verify their flight’s status with their airline and recommended downloading the airline’s app and enabling notifications.

SkyWest had the highest number of cancellations at SFO as of Friday morning, with a total of 20 — or 9% of its total planned flights, according to FlightAware. In second place was United with 11 canceled flights. Other airlines canceling flights out of the airport included Horizon Air, Southwest, Frontier and JetBlue.

At OAK, Southwest canceled 10 flights — making up 5% of its total volume through the airport — and Horizon Air canceled two, according to FlightAware.

A spokesperson for United said that the airline has already made its cancellations through Sunday, which can be tracked at an online hub. The cancellations will not impact international or hub-to-hub flights, and about half of the customers impacted by the cancellations were rebooked on flights within four hours of their original travel plans.

Several airlines — including Delta, America and Southwest — indicated Thursday that the majority of travelers would not be impacted by the flight reductions.

The traffic reduction will roll out over the course of several days, with Friday’s traffic expected to be reduced by about 4%. The cuts will increase to 5% Saturday, 6% Sunday and to the final 10% cut next week.

Ana State, assistant public information manager at Mineta San Jose International Airport, said that SJC continued to be unaffected by the flight reductions Friday morning. One flight was canceled due to heavy fog at its destination airport.

“Currently, operations at SJC are continuing without disruption,” she said. “We have not yet received any reports from our airline partners of impacts to flights at SJC.”

This is a developing report. Check back for updates.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.