Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Federal Aviation Administration boss Bryan Bedford announced Wednesday afternoon that 10% of flights in 40 major cities will be shuttered starting Friday morning because of the federal government shutdown, which has forced air traffic controllers to work without pay and caused sickouts and higher rates of absenteeism.

“This is proactive,” Duffy explained during a press conference.

The announcement was not specific about which airports would be affected.

Up to 4,000 flights nationwide could be impacted, and both commercial and private travel will be included in the cuts. Even space travel will be cut.

Longest shutdown

The shutdown will have gone on a week into the second month by Friday, and will be the longest federal government shutdown in history, breaking the record of 35 days during President Donald Trump's first term.

There was already a shortage of air traffic controllers before the shutdown, and now they haven't been paid since earlier in the month, when they did receive a partial payment.

No doubt, some of them have had to spend time making money in other ways, which many have caused more of them not to show up to work at times.

They will be paid when the shutdown ends, but in the meanwhile, those without sufficient savings may struggle.

"We intend to be proactive"

“We are seeing pressures build in a way that if we allow it to go unchecked, will not allow us to tell the public that we operate the safest airline system in the world. And we are not going to react to that. We intend to be proactive,” Bedford added.

“Our air traffic controllers and a lot of those at DOT and throughout the government, they haven’t received paychecks. And many of these employees, they’re the head of household,” he said.

“They have their spouse at home, they have a child or two or three, and when they lose income, they’re confronted with real-world difficulties in how they pay their bills.”

So far, airports have seen air towers go unmanned and delays that seemed endless.

Two planes collided at LaGuardia airport after hours of delays, and the FAA shut down all flights leaving from Newark Liberty Airport on October 29.

Orlando International Airport is reportedly "near closure" and has canceled nearly all of its landings in recent days.

In their words

Air traffic controllers commented to the New York Post on the shutdown.

“The financial anxiety doesn’t just hurt morale; it directly affects safety,” one controller in South Carolina said. “When someone responsible for thousands of lives a day is worrying about whether they can pay rent or feed their kids, focus suffers. Sometimes that small moment where your mind is elsewhere can have serious impacts.”

Another controller working in California warned, “The shutdown is affecting every single person traveling in the United States at this time. More stress equals more risk; that’s just basic common sense.”

The sooner this shutdown can be resolved, the better it will be for our economy as a whole, of which tourism and travel is a big part.