Flight reductions that the Department of Transportation had earlier frozen late Wednesday occurred less than one week earlier, when disruptions in air travel calmed across the U.S.
The department introduced the freeze prior to the House passing a funding bill that would ensure that the government remained open until January. The White House reported that President Donald Trump would be signing the bill on Wednesday.
Aviation data firm Cirium indicated on Wednesday that 816 U.S. cancellations took place on Wednesday, 3.5 percent of airlines’ schedule, the lowest cancellation rate and number since last Thursday.
The shutdown once again highlighted air travel and increased the pressure on air traffic controllers who have been forced to work without receiving regular paychecks.
In a statement issued on Wednesday night, the DOT said that there had been a “rapid decline” in the callout of controllers in the past two days.
Trump administration officials on Friday began demanding that airlines cut their schedules due to safety risks and further stricter control.
The necessary cancellations increased to 4 percent of domestic flights at U.S. airports to 6 percent on Tuesday, attributing the strain to air traffic controllers. They would have reached 10 percent on Friday, although increases were frozen by DOT on Wednesday night.
However, the cuts could not prevent additional disruptions that were compounded by massive staffing shortages and bad weather, which culminated in a surge of cancellations and delays last weekend.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian stated on Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that the shutdown will have an economic effect on the carrier, but it will not come anywhere near vaporizing the airline’s profits.
He also cautioned that he believes there will be a second shutdown sometime and that the air traffic controllers should be remunerated in the event of a second shutdown.
However, the U.S. airline stocks were generally increasing on Wednesday prior to the House vote.
The shutdown, which began on October 1, has increased the staffing of thin air traffic controllers, and airlines had to slow down thousands of flights or cancel flights altogether, and plans of 5 million passengers were disrupted, according to the Airlines for America, which is an industry group that represents the largest U.S. carriers.
The controller’s union and government officials have cited that some of the air traffic controllers had to take second jobs in order to make ends meet.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and big airline companies warned that air travel would not immediately return to normalcy after the shutdown this week.
At a news conference at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday, Duffy added that “We’re going to wait to see the data on our end before we take out the restrictions in travel, but it depends on controllers coming back to work.”
