FAA flight reductions: How KCI passengers are being affected by flight cuts
Kansas City International Airport isn’t among the 40 airports facing flight cuts ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration due to the government shutdown, but travelers arriving and departing the metro are still feeling the ripple effects of these FAA-mandated reductions.
As of midday Tuesday, more than 1,559 flights have been canceled within, into or out of the United States, with another 1,206 delayed, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
At KCI, known to travelers by its airport code MCI, five arriving and departing flights have been canceled, and another 21 flights delayed on Tuesday, according to FlightAware.
Since Saturday, 65 flights into and out of KCI have been canceled, and another 324 have been delayed. Nationally, there have been 8,501 flight cancellations and 30,139 delayed flights in that time period, according to FlightAware.
Local travelers still will most likely continue to see impacts at MCI, as 32 of the 40 airports on the FAA reduction list are severed nonstop from MCI by passenger airlines, a spokesman for the Kansas City Aviation Department said last week. Travelers were urged to check with their airlines for delays and cancellations because airlines would be the first source of that information.
For those traveling on Tuesday, expect possible delays or flight changes in Philadelphia and Las Vegas due to staffing shortages, according to the FAA’s operations advisory.
LaGuardia in New York has been managing flight delays by holding flights before takeoff. Additional ground stops or more delays are likely at major Northeast airports, including those in New York City, Newark, Boston, and Washington, D.C
Travelers can also expect delays due to weather as well. Strong winds are affecting airports in the Northeast, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. Low clouds and winds are also affecting Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to the FAA.
Citing the need to relieve the stress on air traffic controllers during the government shutdown, the FAA last week ordered flights to be initially cut by 4% at 40 of the nation’s busiest airports. The FAA ordered airlines to ramp up flight reductions to 6% by Tuesday, 8% by Thursday and 10% by Friday.
The cancellations and delays peaked on Sunday, with nearly 3,000 flights being canceled and another 11,229 being delayed, according to FlightAware.
The U.S. Senate on Monday passed a deal to end the longest government shutdown in history, and it now requires the approval of the U.S. House of Representatives.
But reduced flight schedules cannot immediately bounce back to full capacity after the government reopens, Airlines for America, a trade association that represents major airlines, said in a statement.
“It will take time, and there will be residual effects for days,” the trade association said. “With the Thanksgiving travel period beginning next week and the busy shipping season around the corner, the time to act is now to help mitigate any further impacts to Americans.”
