Travelers coming and going to Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports are facing further delays and cancellations as the federal shutdown enters its 41st day.
The cancellations and delays continued on Monday morning, just days after federal transportation officials implemented air traffic cuts in the country’s busiest airports to alleviate pressure on air traffic controllers who’ve been working under strain and without a paycheck since the shutdown began Oct. 1.
As of around 11 a.m., a combined 121 flights departing or arriving at LaGuardia had been canceled and another 114 were delayed, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. At Kennedy Airport, 79 incoming and outgoing flights were canceled and another 97 delayed. Neighboring Newark airport isn’t faring much better: The New Jersey airport was already experiencing 90 cancellations and another 107 delays, according to FlightAware.
Flights departing and arriving at MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma have been largely unaffected by the chaos plaguing larger airports. Just two flights are experiencing slight delays and a pair of Southwest flights departing and arriving the airport have been canceled so far.
Across the country, daily airline cancellations were already above 1,900, with more than 2,700 delays. On Sunday, nearly 3,500 cancellations occurred nationwide, with more than 11,000 delays.
Last week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Bryan Bedford, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said they would cut air traffic by 10% to ease the workload on air traffic controllers. The reduction began Friday, with 4% of operations curbed. The reductions will ramp up to 6% on Tuesday, 8% on Thursday and finally reaching 10% by this Friday, according to transit officials.
Federal lawmakers on Sunday took the first steps to ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, with a final vote to reopen expected later this week.
Check back for updates on this developing story.