The FAA first shared that it was going to require an across-the-board flight cut at 40 major airports, that struck me as a strange approach to air traffic controllers calling out sick during the government shutdown.
There have been different facilities short-staffed on different days (although some, already understaffed to begin with, have had more frequent issues than others). Many of these 40 aren’t among those. (Fewer flights generally does help with workload at enroute centers.)
Today, in the first day of cuts (4%), we haven’t seen improvement. My own flight from Chicago to Austin was delayed due to air traffic control staff shortages in Austin today.
We know that air traffic controllers not showing up to work quickly brought an end to the government shutdown in 2019. And after Republicans took losses in Tuesday’s elections, and polling suggesting they’re being blamed in the shutdown (as well as being insufficiently focused on affordability issues that they campaigned on last year), they likely want to bring the shutdown to an end without capitulating to opposition demands.
On the other hand, the Department of Transportation says that the decision to reduce flights is data-driven. That data hasn’t been shared with the public. And The Air Current reports that is hasn’t been shared with airlines, either. Or with Members of Congress.
And, they report, several C-level executives at U.S. airlines believe that the decision to snarl commercial airline travel is political. (This would also explain the primary focus on commercial flights with only the option to reduce private flight traffic.)
One senior airline official speaking to TAC described the interim justification laid out in the 10-page order as a “potemkin village.” …
Another senior C-level executive at a different carrier told TAC they did feel the cuts were “of course” politically motivated and said: “We are on high alert for flight operations…but nothing has risen up to me that we have a real issue here.” A third C-level executive said “Oh god yes” when asked if the reductions were politically motivated.
Not every executive was so forthright, with one acknowledging to The Air Current that it would be “counterproductive” to acknowledge the role that politics was playing here “even privately.”
As JoeSentMe.com told subscribers last night, the idea of there being an aviation issue and the idea of Duffy playing to his audience of one are NOT mutually exclusive. Or as Joe wrote: “We have a genuine crisis on our hands. And we have a federal administration that is more interested in performative government than doing what is best for travelers, airlines or federal travel employees.”
Two things can be true at once. Honest. And if this drags on, 10% cuts, as Gary so often likes to say in another context, will be “table stakes.”
Data? We ain’t got no data! We don’t need no data! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ data!
Gary, I’m truly surprised that you’re truly surprised by this revelation. The entire modus operandi of this administration is threats, extortion, and the deliberate infliction of pain and suffering. Facts, data, and the law be damned. Expect Dear Leader to stubbornly dig in even deeper following the drubbing election results of Tuesday. If @1990 chimes in, his comments will be a bit more eloquent than my quickie reply.
I’m shocked! Shocked to hear Duffy and Trumpy are using the power of the government to extract concessions from the other party and lying about it!
“If @1990 chimes in, his comments will be a bit more eloquent than my quickie reply.” I am sure when he’s done cleaning the basement of his mom’s house he lives in (mom got tired of the stench), he will respond. Or, is he pretending to be on a trip? Al Bundy of the left.
Leave it to airline executives to state the obvious. Facts and data are the enemy of this administration.
whaaaat? the most transparent president the world, nay the solar system, has ever seen, is not being totally open and transparent?? nooooo.
it’s simple folks, the felon wants to screw the public over. all to keep his name hidden in the files.
I’m surprised that the airline executives would speak up. They all need something from the Fed and I expected them to toe the government line.
YMMV’s blog had a brilliant solution to the problem of too many planes: ban all private planes from flying until the crisis is ended.
@This comes to mind — Good morning to you, too, bud. Even better news: TATL is still running just fine, folks. Actual J, lie-flat, no ‘phony’ PE recliners. Anyway, enjoy driving between New Orleans and Dallas because American had to cut that route thanks to #47 being such a ‘weak’ President. Yeesh.
Schumer has had at least 13 CR’s come his way and has continually said no. Both sides are dug in. Demos can’t stand the fact that they currently aren’t in charge. Step aside Chuckie.
@Coffee Please — Republicans have failed to earn the votes 14, not 13, times. Recall, shutdowns mean the President is weak (Donald said so himself). So, you can frame this any way you wish, but it’s not ‘both sides.’ Republicans own the shutdown.
Democrats standing up for Americans healthcare is a good and noble cause. The Senator from NY should have held the line back in April. 359 more days until the midterms. Once Democrats win back Congress, the real accountability begins. ‘Hope is alive!’
@1990. You need 60 in the Senate right? Chuckie wants health care for illegals. As a taxpayer I am not interested in funding this. Joe / Kammy let in millions illegally and many of us don’t want to pay for that debacle. If you want free stuff then go to Mamdani World. Now watch the taxpayers and companies flee. Memories of AOC chasing out Amazon with their jobs and tax revenue.
What do expect from a guy who was a lumberjack and MTV host.
Maybe airlines could offer to fund controllers until shutdown is over
It makes sense to stop routes where airlines are just slot squatting and limit private aviation. The system is stressed. If there is a crash and a controller says they were overworked, management has an obligation to make the system function as effectively as possible. No one knows when the shutdown will end, so being proactive to reduce stress now is important.
@Coffee Please — Who controls all three branches of the federal government right now? Republicans.
Here’s another quote from your Dear Leader: “A government shutdown falls on the president’s lack of leadership. I mean, problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top.”
You can’t make this stuff up. LOL.
@Coffee Please no matter how many times you make the claim the Dems are trying to give “illegals” healthcare, it’s still horse hockey and shows how little you know about how the US healthcare system operates.
First and foremost, Americans are seeing their premiums for marketplace health insurance double and even triple this year. 14 million hard working Americans are about to those their health insurance. It’s not the people on Medicaid losing health insurance…it’s the poor working class. It’s a shame you don’t care about those people.
When an American or anyone in our country cannot afford to pay for healthcare where do they go? To the ER. Why? Because there is a law called EMTALA that requires ERs treat patients regardless of their ability to pay. So, instead of caring for them in a way that balances cost and quality we send them to the ER, which is one of the most expensive and overwhelmed sites of care. And when they don’t pay the system has to absorb those losses. The result is we all pay more. And, folks like you coming to the ER as sitting there bitching because you have to wait longer in the ER as a direct result of the policy decisions YOU voted for.
You can spew all the bile, disgust, disrespect and hate at immigrants all you want, but the math doesn’t lie. Y’all are tossing the baby out with the bath water and don’t give a damn who gets hurt in the process.
@Parker — I’ve heard… no, wait… “people are saying…” it’s actually the Republicans who want trans-illegal-genital-mutilation… they’re projecting!
The “Affordable” Care Act, the gift that keeps on giving.
https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-fraud-that-wont-die-obamacares-endless-deceptions
@ Parker
Dear know it all (how?)
The subsidies for Obamacare were a temporary Covid program. We can’t even get rid of temporary programs while the deficit goes bananas. The payments, illustrating what a poor program Obamacare is, are really payments to the insurance companies, the worse people in the country.
i you can’t afford Obamacare, sign up for expanded Medicaid. Medicaid is not insurance, so you are uninsured, but you get your bills paid by someone else, which is the objective here.
@CoffeePlease- you’ve had too much coffee or some other drug that’s affecting your mind. You’re spewing nothing but non-sense.
So where are the fence jumpers (Southern Border) people getting their medical care from? Mandami? Somalia Frey? AOC? Bernie? Hogg (he’s back in the fray)? Pay up people.
@Jack the ladd – My “know it all” approach to things healthcare comes from my medical degree, my MBA, my master’s degree in strategic innovation and my 35 years of experience in the healthcare industry as a physician and a consultant advising over 150 health systems across the US on how to make healthcare better for their communities.
You can try to minimize the validity of my POV by calling me a “know it all,” but that does not take away from the reality that I am in fact considered a national expert on this topic. As for your other points:
1. The federal deficit ballooned $7.3 TRILLION during Trump’s first term. It ballooned because companies and the wealthiest Americans received BILLIONS in tax credits. We spent over $150 million on Trump’s golf outings. We spent even more flying him back and forth to Florida so he could hold court in his palace. The deficit ballooned not because of the ACA, but because the so-called deficit hawks got into power and then engaged in an orgy of activities that benefited their buddies at the expense of everyday Americans
2. Medicaid IS health insurance. Premiums are paid (via tax dollars). Care is provided. Providers are reimbursed (at about $0.85 for every $1.00 in cost). Not everything is covered. Coverage provided by insurance companies who compete to win the business at the state level. Sounds like insurance to me.
3. Many GOP-led states have continued to cut Medicaid eligibility and coverage…to disastrous consequences. Example published just today by one of the premier healthcare media outlets: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/georgias-cautionary-tale-for-hospitals-as-medicaid-work-rules-expand/
4. In places like Alabama a single person earning over $1,014 per month is not eligible for Medicaid based on Alabama’s eligibility requirements. However, the same person is eligible for sliding scale subsidies under the ACA for incomes up to 400% of the federal poverty limit, which comes out to roughly $5,200/month. So, you can’t just move people to Medicaid unless the state of Alabama agrees to increase eligibility thresholds. Any guesses on the likelihood of that happening?
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify your misunderstandings.
@coffeeplease: One question: When you have these delusions, are they in color or black & white?
“It ballooned because companies and the wealthiest Americans received BILLIONS in tax credits.”
Um, no! You can not create debt on the revenue side; all debt is created by spending.
@Mike P basic math: when you cut revenue but not expenses and expenses exceed revenue debt climbs.
@Parker — Mike P argues in bad faith all the time on here. Next he’ll demand a source, while he shares a dubious link to an easily disproven pseudoscience. Beware of that loser…
@CoffeePlease, @Jacktheladd — Republicans haven’t done anything about ‘price of groceries’ other than adding tariffs (which raise prices) and tax cuts to billionaires (which, again, doesn’t help regular folks, at all.) 2026 is gonna be really bad for y’all. Hehe.
@Mike P – If your expenses are $1,000 and your income is $750 then you’re doing deficit spending and going into debt. I’m sure glad those billionaires got more tax breaks. They need the money a lot more than people struggling to pay rent and buy groceries.
” when you cut revenue but not expenses and expenses exceed revenue debt climbs.
But cutting revenue had nothing to do with the increase in debt. All debt is created by spending. You can’t create debt on the revenue side. Basic accounting.
“If your expenses are $1,000 and your income is $750 then you’re doing deficit spending and going into debt.”
That’s right, but the debt was created by spending. Again, you can’t create debt on the revenue. Not possible
@1990
What about the price of eggs? Where did all those egg displays go when the likes of Tlaib and the rest of the squad were jumping up and down in Congress with their fancy props?
@1990
One final comment on this thread. I fully expect the House to swing to the Demos I. The midterms. That’s how it usually works. Remember the beating Obama took in the house in 2010? Then we can all watch that idiot Jeffries swing the gavel. What a piece of work. I wonder if he will tear up the State of the Union address like the Wicked Witch did on Trump’s first tour.