Airports across the nation are slated to see flight reductions as the record-setting government shutdown continues and while Syracuse Airport says it will continue operating as normal, officials are advising travelers to monitor their upcoming flights.
“The airport itself will continue to operate as normal — keeping the runways and taxiways safe and operable, managing parking, managing the terminal,” Syracuse Airport Public Information Officer Matthew Szwejbka said. “However, of those 40 airports on the FAA flight reduction list, airlines operating at Syracuse fly directly to 19 of them either year-round or seasonally.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced at a Nov. 5 news conference that 40 major airports will see a 10% cut in flights. He warned earlier in the week that the cuts could come as a result of pressure on the country’s air traffic controllers.
“It’s going to lead to more cancellations, but we are going to work with the airlines to do this in a systematic way,” Duffy said.
Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford added that the reductions would “put the relief where the relief will do the most good” and that the FAA would work with airlines on how to implement them. “We’re not going to do anything that will compromise the safety of air travel in the United States,” Bedford said.
Major airports in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and more are included in the list of sites facing flight reductions, according to reports from ABC News and CBS News, which cited anonymous sources.
Szwejbka said that it was “reasonable” to suspect that the cancellations and delays from these reductions will spider out across the National Airspace System, possibly to Syracuse.
“As the airport authority, we neither operate flights nor manage the operations of our airline partners, so the airlines will be the best source of information regarding their intended reductions,” Szwejbka said. “Our biggest piece of advice to travelers is to closely monitor the status of any upcoming flights directly with their airlines.”
The airports named to face flight cuts are listed below, but could change when an official list is released by the FAA, according to reports from ABC News and CBS News.
Information from USA Today was used in this article.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Syracuse Airport urges travelers to monitor upcoming flights amid reductions
Reporting by Casey Pritchard and James Powel, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
