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FAA Flight Cuts: Just Another Day in the "New Normal" of Air Travel Hell?
So, the FAA's threatening to cut flights, huh? Ten percent across 40 "high-volume" markets? If the shutdown continues, they say. As if the airlines weren't already a complete and utter disaster. I mean, give me a break. This ain't news—it's just the official confirmation of what we all already know: flying sucks now.
They're blaming it on staffing shortages, air traffic controllers calling out sick, and controllers being "pressured, stressed and fatigued." Well, no duh. You're working without pay, dealing with entitled passengers whose flights keep getting canned, and probably subsisting on ramen noodles. What did they expect? A goddamn ticker-tape parade of enthusiasm?
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is offering bonuses to air traffic controllers near retirement to keep them working. Seriously? Bonuses? How about just paying them what they're owed now? It's like putting a band-aid on a severed limb and expecting it to grow back.
And Duffy's worried about controllers taking side jobs? "I do not want them to take side jobs, I want them to show up for work," he whines. Let's be real, Sean. These people gotta eat. Pay your damn workers and they won't need to moonlight as Uber drivers or dog walkers.
Shutdown Delay Roulette: Place Your Bets!
Kris Van Cleave from CBS News calls it "shutdown delay roulette." Perfect analogy. You know the delays are coming, you just don't know when, where, or how bad. It's like a twisted game show where the prize is...arriving at your destination sometime before Christmas.
Van Cleave mentions the Houston airport having three-hour security lines on a Sunday. Three hours! I could drive to another state in that time. And Burbank Airport going to "ATC zero" – nobody in the control tower? Are you kidding me? This is how accidents happen. This is how people die.
And what about the airlines? They "learned about this plan about the same time we did," apparently. So, they're scrambling, meeting with the Department of Transportation, the White House... Meanwhile, thousands of passengers are left twisting in the wind, wondering if they'll ever see their luggage again. It's chaos, pure and simple.
Who's Really to Blame?
The airlines are saying they want the government back open, controllers paid, TSA officers paid. Offcourse they do. "It costs airlines thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars, to cancel flights," Van Cleave points out. It's always about the bottom line, isn't it? Safety, customer service, basic human decency – those are just afterthoughts.
Speaking of airlines, United, American, SkyWest, Envoy Air, Republic... they're all getting slammed by cancellations and delays. Phoenix, Louisville, San Francisco, Newark... no airport is safe. It's a nationwide clusterfuck of epic proportions. Thousands of Travelers Grounded Across the US as United, American, SkyWest, Envoy Air, Republic, and More Airlines Cancel 141 Flights and Cause 2,133 Delays, Impacting Major Airports in Louisville, Sa
And don't even get me started on the regional airlines. SkyWest seems to be leading the charge in cancellation chaos. Is anyone actually surprised?
Then again, maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe it's not entirely the airlines' fault. Maybe it's the government's fault for shutting down in the first place. Maybe it's the fault of whoever invented air travel and cursed us all with this modern-day form of torture.
So, Are We Screwed or What?
Yeah, we're screwed. Pack extra snacks, download some podcasts, and prepare for the worst. Flying is officially a gamble, and the odds are definitely not in your favor.