U.S. air cancellations and delays continued to worsen over the weekend as the mandated capacity cuts by the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration entered a third day.
The cuts were mandated as a result of the U.S. government shutdown, which reached day 40 Sunday, but reports indicated several Democratic senators had reached an agreement with their Republican counterparts to reopen. At press time, there had been no vote.
Aviation analytics company Cirium as of 4 p.m. Eastern time Sunday reported the cancellation rate at the 10 U.S. airports with the largest reductions for Nov. 7-9 at 6 percent, representing 4,374 canceled flights.
Atlanta-Hartsfield had the highest number of cancellations at 433 which was almost 14 percent of scheduled flights. But Newark Liberty's 237 cancellations amounted to more than 15 percent of its scheduled flights. Cirium also reported that two other of the 10 airports it featured had double-digit percentage cancellations: Reagan Washington National (13 percent) and New York's LaGuardia (11 percent).
As of 9 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, airline tracker FlightAware had reported 2,732 cancellations within, into or out of the U.S. for Nov. 9. The number of delays for the same parameters was 9,564. Cancellations on Nov. 8 reached 1,566, with 7,543 flights delayed.
DOT and FAA on Nov. 5 announced mandated capacity cuts of up to 10 percent to begin Nov. 7 at 40 "high-traffic" airports. Those cuts are being implemented gradually, with 2 percent mandated for this past Friday and the full 10 percent not taking effect until Nov. 14.
For the coming few days, cancellations for Nov. 10 were up to 1,093 for flights within, into or out of the U.S. as of 9 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, according to FlightAware. For Nov. 11, they were at 947.
Even if a deal is reached and the vote succeeds in funding and reopening the government, challenges would remain in getting air traffic controllers back into the towers.
"I'm about 1,000 to 2,000 controllers short," DOT Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday on CNN. "I used to have about four controllers a day retire before the shutdown. I'm now up to 15 to 20 a day are retiring. So, it's going to be harder for me to come back after the shutdown and have more controllers controlling the airspace, so this is going to live on in air travel well beyond the timeframe this government opens back up."
Airline lobbying group Airlines for America on Nov. 9 estimated that the daily U.S. economic impact when directed capacity cuts reach 10 percent would be $285 million to $580 million, "depending on the degree to which airlines can reaccommodate cancellation-disrupted passengers on the remaining flights." The estimate is tied "solely to compliance with the flight-reduction directive." A4A added that many flight crews are timing out or missing connections.
American Airlines' travel alert information related to the FAA directive can be found here.
As of 1:30 p.m. Eastern time Nov. 9, Delta Air Lines announced that it had completed all FAA-directed cancellations through Nov. 11. Delta travel waiver information can be found here.
United Airlines also reported that its schedule changes through Nov. 11 "are now in place." United FAA-related information can be found here.
RELATED: DOT, FAA Outline Gradual Air Capacity Reduction Plans