Tourism armageddon expected in the US due to government shutdown

US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy has warned of a looming “travel armageddon” over the coming weekend.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has warned of a looming “travel armageddon” this coming weekend unless Congress passes legislation to fund the government. According to him, mass sick leave of unpaid air traffic controllers could lead to the cancellation of more than 10 percent of flights and the complete shutdown of some airlines.

The US is facing a real tourism Armageddon this coming weekend if Congress does not end the government shutdown. This alarming statement was made by Transport Minister Sean Duffy, warning that more than 10 percent of flights across the country could be delayed, and some airlines would decide to completely suspend flights.

“You may find airlines that will stop flying. A complete stop,” Duffy said, stressing that the scale of the challenges ahead would make last weekend, when thousands of flights were canceled, look like nothing in comparison. The situation at airports will slow down radically if the House doesn’t do its job of renewing funding, he said.

The looming collapse has been fueled by widespread absenteeism among air traffic controllers, who have not been paid for weeks due to the government shutdown. This is forcing airports to introduce so-called personnel changes – limiting the number of landings and the speed at which flights land when there are not enough controllers on the towers to operate safely. Last weekend alone, such measures were used 81 times, resulting in nearly 19,000 delays over the weekend. Now the situation has improved somewhat – only four personnel changes, about 3 thousand delays and 1,200 flight cancellations. Duffy attributed this to staff optimism about the likely end to the shutdown: The Senate has already approved a spending bill and a Congressional vote is expected.

The minister said he hoped air traffic controllers would receive 70 percent of their back pay within 48 hours of government reopening and the remaining amount within a week. However, he warned that if Wednesday’s vote failed and the outage continued, airlines would face “significantly larger disruptions” that would be “much worse” than previous ones. At the same time, Duffy supported President Trump’s idea to pay air traffic controllers who continued to work during the “downtime” a bonus of $10,000, calling this proposal brilliant. He even offered to invite such employees to the White House to personally present the checks. At the same time, the minister criticized those workers who took sick leave, questioning their patriotism and promising that the Ministry of Transport would review their cases and impose fines, especially for those who quit before the termination of payments.