By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Major U.S. airlines are urging the Federal Aviation Administration to drop mandatory 6% domestic flight cuts at 40 major airports imposed to address air traffic safety concerns after the end of a record-setting government shutdown.
Airlines are largely not in compliance with the FAA order that requires much steeper cuts. Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, said airlines canceled just 2% of overall flights Friday, down from 3.5% on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, air traffic controllers and other FAA employees began receiving back pay equal to about 70% of what they are owed excluding overtime, the FAA and union officials said.
Airlines have been privately making the case to the FAA that it is time to end the cuts and some have said they plan to cut few or no flights on Saturday, officials told Reuters.
The FAA, which did not immediately comment Friday, opted on Wednesday to ease those required cancellations after disruptions due to air traffic control absences declined dramatically as Congress voted to reopen the government after a 43-day shutdown. The FAA kept the cuts at 6% rather than increasing them to 8% on Thursday and 10% on Friday as previously announced.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday only a few controllers were absent from work Thursday as operations dramatically improved.
“We’re reviewing the data provided and are working hard to return the airspace back to normal,” Duffy said.
Separately, a group of House Democrats led by Representative Rick Larsen, the ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, asked the administration on Friday to turn over the specific safety data and how it compares to the last six months. “It appears that the administration made this decision without adequate coordination with key aviation stakeholders,” the Democrats wrote.
United Airlines said it had canceled 134 flights for Friday, or almost 3% of its flights, after cancelling 222 flights on Thursday.
The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels. Many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown led to them working without pay.
Air traffic absences led to tens of thousands of flight cancellations and delays since October 1, when the 43-day shutdown began.
(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Nick Zieminski, William Maclean)
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