SEATAC, Wash. — The government shutdown is over, but right now, 6% of flights are still being slashed at 40 airports, including Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
As of 8 a.m. on Thursday morning, there were 65 cancellations and 20 delays at SEA.
While Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said there is no exact timeline for when the air traffic will return to normal, we still found passengers hopping on flights to destinations all over the world.
Dana and Joe Postler are heading to Phoenix for the weekend. They tell us their flight was on time and going smoothly, but they are worried about the return.
“The real challenge is, do we have a flight back? That’s our real concern, we will be playing in that Planes, Trains, Automobiles movie,” Postler said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday the reductions need to stay in place until air traffic controller staffing levels return to “safe levels”. He didn’t elaborate on what exactly that means, but said there have been incidents of planes getting too close to each other this week at Chicago O’Hare.
Until the staffing and flights return to normal, passengers like Amanda Mender say they are extra prepared.
She is flying to Patagonia today, and while international flights aren’t supposed to be impacted, she still has backups in place.
“I have like four flights in case they cancel this one, so I’ll be spending all day in Dallas since I am flying out days earlier than needed,” Mander said.
She tells us she hopes the chaos is over by the time she punches her return ticket to the PNW.
“I think things will smooth over,” Mander said.
Duffy says that while he doesn’t think the reductions will impact Thanksgiving travel, there is no set timeline for when the air traffic will return to normal.
But the CEO of Delta tells CBS Mornings something else: “I expect by the weekend we’re pretty much going to be full steam ahead.”
Many passengers say they agree with the reductions when it comes to safety in the towers.
“Totally reasonable, whatever we can do to keep everybody safe and numbers down, whatever the FAA decides they have to do is totally fine with me,” Postler said.
Airlines are asking everyone to make sure they’re checking their app and flight status before heading to the airport as cancellations continue.
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