More than 1,500 flights have been canceled by US airlines Monday and hundreds more delayed as the longest government shutdown in history enters its 41st day — causing travel chaos at some of the nation’s biggest airports.
At America’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, 11% of incoming flights had been axed as of 8 a.m. Monday and 5% of outgoing flights had been canceled — totaling more than 200 flights in total, according to FlightAware.
Chicago’s two airports were also among those hit the hardest, with more than 300 flights in and out of Chicago O’Hare scrapped and more than 100 in and out of Chicago Midway, the data shows.
More than 1,300 flights within, into or out of the US were also delayed early Monday.
New York City’s major airports, LaGuardia, Newark Liberty and JFK were also dealt serious blows.
LaGuardia canceled 61 departing flights (10%) and 58 arrivals (10%), Newark nixed 47 departures (8%) and 39 arrivals (6%), and JFK scrapped 30 outgoing flights (4%) and 49 incoming flights (7%).
The ongoing travel nightmare comes a day after travelers experienced the worst day for air travel since the government shutdown.
Almost 3,000 flights were canceled by US airlines Sunday and more than 10,800 were delayed.
Monday marks the fourth day of the FAA’s air traffic staffing reductions, where the agency has been forced to shed 10% of its workers across 40 high-volume airports.
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