The FAA’s plan to cut flights may not be an absolute nightmare

US Federal Aviation Administration It plans to cut 10 percent of flights at 40 high-traffic airports Friday morning if Congress fails Reopening the federal government By then, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Brian Bedford said Wednesday.

This announcement came days after the American agency She said she is facing widespread shortages From air traffic controllers at half of the nation’s 30 busiest airports, and hours-long security lines due to the absence of TSA agents. Federal workers have now gone 35 days without pay amid the longest government shutdown in US history.

Duffy said on Wednesday that which flights might be canceled and where “depends on the data.” “It depends on where is the pressure and how do we relieve the pressure?”

When passengers travel by plane, “they will get to their destinations safely because we did our job,” Duffy said.

The FAA did not immediately respond to WIRED’s questions, and it is unclear whether the flight cuts would only affect commercial airlines, or cargo and private flights as well. A 10% reduction in scheduled commercial flights at 40 airports could lead to the cancellation of 4,000 to 5,000 flights per day.

For airlines and travelers, the sudden drop in flights will likely cause some serious logistical problems. Daffy did Air travel is ‘total chaos’, it warned this week. The shutdown should continue.

But airlines have some experience responding to sudden flight reductions due to staffing problems, says Michael McCormick, a former FAA official who now heads the air traffic management program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

In the spring of 2023, During another period of shortage of air traffic controllersthe Federal Aviation Administration allowed airlines to reduce their capacities at New York area airports. (Such reductions typically force airlines to waive the right to take off or land; the FAA has temporarily eliminated this penalty.) In response, airlines were able to quickly “scale up”, compensating for the reduced number of flights by replacing small aircraft with larger ones. In this way, cutting flights does not necessarily reduce the number of passengers traveling overall.

If the FAA follows through on Friday, McCormick says, airlines will likely be able to implement a similar “benchmarking” process. Although flights and passenger transport will be cancelled, this may mean that many will still be able to reach their destinations. The move may give airlines more time to prepare.

“With the current situation, it is unpredictable which airports will be affected tomorrow,” he says. “This restores some predictability.”