Over 40 U.S. airports have been ordered to cut flights due to the ongoing government shutdown. While the San Luis Obispo County Airport isn’t one of these locations, I spoke with passengers arriving from impacted airports to hear how the disruption is changing their plans.
Despite Thousands of flights being cut at major airports across the country, Dana Shong, a traveler flying into the San Luis Obispo County Airport on Saturday, said she had no issues.
“They had advised us ahead of time that we may experience some sort of delays, they said, don't worry about it, and we didn't,” Shong said. “We arrived at the airport. Everything was just perfect.”
Shong said she flies out of the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport every other week. She said when she first heard about the cuts, she was nervous about how it would affect her travel.
“I fly a lot, so it's kind of like, are planes going to be backed up, or are they going to reduce the flights, period?” Shong said. “Coming to a smaller airport, we were really concerned because we only have 1 or 2 [flights] a day.”
The Federal Aviation Administration made the call to cut flights at 40 major airports to ease pressures from the ongoing, record-setting government shutdown. The announcement came on Wednesday, just ahead of George Arechiga’s flight back to San Antonio.
“When we made these accommodations, we didn't expect that there was going to be the shutdown effect,” Arechiga said. “We thought it would have been done a long time ago.”
Though his final destination isn’t affected, Arechiga said he has to stop in Phoenix for a connecting flight. He said he isn’t bothered by the potential delays, but he sympathizes with other travelers and airport employees.
“Any time I go into a large airport like Phoenix, are already expecting it to be a bit of a rush,” Arechiga said. “I'm also expecting other people, other passengers, to be frustrated. I know that maybe even some of the people that are working are going to be short tempered as well because of all that. They're also having to deal with this with the cuts. I know that it's a burden on them as well.”
Flights at major airports will be reduced daily until each hits a 10% cut by Friday.
