FAA funding problems hit airports in California, elsewhere

By Madeline Shannon
The Center Square

As Christine Finch helped her father, Graham Finch, gather his luggage at the San Francisco International Airport, she was worried about how flight delays caused by the federal shutdown would affect their travel plans.

“Am I going to be able to get Dad home?” Christine said of her first thought when hearing about the impending flight delays.

Christine, who is flying her father home to New Zealand, said she’s also worried whether she’ll be able to get back to Canada to go to work.

“I don’t come back for a month, so I’m hoping it will be all solved by then, and it won’t affect me on my way back up,” Christine told The Center Square at the airport Thursday afternoon.

Otherwise, she noted, “I won’t be able to get back up to get back to work.”

That’s the possible personal impact as the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history continues.

Starting Friday, the 38th day of the shutdown, flights up and down the West Coast are expected to be delayed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

On Thursday, the FAA released a list of the airports that will be affected by reduced flights. They include 12 major ones in the West, stretching from California north to Alaska, west to Hawaii and east to Colorado and Texas.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, announced Wednesday the FAA will reduce flights by a total of 10% in what he called 40 “high-volume markets” throughout the United States. Those cuts are expected to take effect on Friday in an effort to make airline flights safe as shortages in staffing are made worse by the funding lapse caused by the shutdown.

West Coast airports on the list include a few in California: Los Angeles International, San Diego International, San Francisco International and Ontario International.

Elsewhere in the West, the affected airports include Anchorage International, Seattle/Tacoma International, Portland International, Las Vegas Harry Reid International, Phoenix Sky Harbor International, Salt Lake City International, Honolulu International, Denver International and Dallas/Fort Worth International.

Travelers flying out of San Francisco International on Thursday told The Center Square they were concerned about the travel plans of friends and family, despite their own good timing in traveling before the reductions.

“We’re really worried about our friends traveling,” said Della Shapen, who was catching a flight to Denmark with her husband, Kevin, and their dog, Jetta. “We’re really fortunate that we’re getting ahead of it.”

Others travelers to Europe said they weren’t worried their flights were going to be delayed. They saw the words “on time” flashed on nearby screens showing that most flights flying out of San Francisco on Thursday were departing as scheduled.

“I was monitoring the situation with the shutdown, but today, maybe we’re lucky,” said Raphael Heisen, who said he was flying to Germany.

“The situation … I’m truly worried about that,” Heisen told The Center Square about the shutdown.

According to a report published by EY-Parthenon, the federal government shutdown could cost the American economy $7 billion a week, leading to a 0.1% decline in gross domestic product growth. Federal employees, who include Transportation Security Agency workers at airports, aren’t getting paid their wages because of the federal government shutdown – leading to many of these workers calling out sick, according to Forbes.