More than 2,000 flight cancellations as government shutdown continues<\/a><\/p>\nLast week, the FAA ordered a 4% reduction in operations at 40 high-traffic airports across the country. That number is expected to rise to 10% by the end of this week as the agency works to ease pressure points and address fatigue among air traffic controllers working without pay.<\/p>\n
While Corpus Christi International Airport (CCIA) is not one of the 40 airports directly impacted, it\u2019s still feeling the trickle-down effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the FAA asked for airlines to cut flights down by 10%, we weren\u2019t sure how that would affect Corpus Christi,\u201d Lacey Guzman with CCIA said. \u201cWe have three canceled flights now. If they are canceled, their passengers are being rebooked on other flights that we have going out. Luckily, we have a lot of frequency, seven flights on American going out, so we\u2019re able to kind of rebook people. But we are seeing that impact here in Corpus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the nation, travelers have flooded social media with frustration as long TSA lines, canceled flights and long delays leave many stranded in airports like Dallas, Houston and Denver, the three connecting hubs for Corpus Christi passengers.<\/p>\n
Guzman said the situation is constantly changing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a day-by-day cancellation, and so the airline doesn\u2019t even know until the day before what\u2019s going to be canceled,\u201d Guzman said. \u201cWhen it first started, we did see one cancellation. Of course, now we\u2019re at three cancellations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Congressman Vicente Gonzalez said the air travel disruptions are only part of a much larger issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefunding the FAA even a little bit and cutting their services even just a little bit has a massive economic impact on our country,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cWe have not only a lot of tourist travel, but we have a lot of business travel that needs to take place in order for transactions to come through, in order for business to work and government to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Congressman Gonzalez added that a bipartisan group of senators made progress late Sunday night toward ending the shutdown, but more still must be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI urge the federal government and those who are in charge right now to assure that the resources are available for the FAA to be fully funded,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cWe need to get things open again. We need to get working and we need to get talking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guzman advises that travelers take extra precautions, emphasizing that preparation and flexibility are key.<\/p>\n
\u201cPacking your medicine in your carry-on and not your checked bag because you don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to be delayed or canceled and you\u2019re not going to have your bag anymore,\u201d Guzman said. \u201cGetting to the airport earlier than usual, all of the good practices that we\u2019re told to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the shutdown drags on, passengers and airport staff alike continue to weather growing uncertainty and hope for relief soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travelers nationwide are voicing frustration online as long TSA lines, cancellations, and delays leave many stranded at major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-44055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}