Airport Flight Restrictions Begin

Airport flight restrictions have begun due to the ongoing government shutdown. Jessica Rosental with Fox News Radio joins us to discuss the impact this could have on holiday travel. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sandy and I went to Washington, DC a couple of
weeks ago and we had a direct flight and that
doesn't happen all the time, and it was like we
had our own plane. You get on the plane and
you get off in your destination. Okay, this is West
Michigan's Morning News Steve Kelly and Brett Pakita Schmidti's back soon.
But all of us may be seeing some and there
are now with TSA shortages because they're not getting paid.

(00:23):
And what about air traffic controllers. Jessica Rosenthal with Box
News Radio on the liveline. Jessica, thanks for joining.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Us today, Thank thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well, you know that this thing could go either way
on a good day, let alone in the middle of
a government shutdown. Could this thing possibly last until the
busiest flying time of the year.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, that's what everybody's talking about, is that this is
really going to get us into Thanksgiving travel time, which
is just in a couple of weeks here today. Effectively,
we're seeing a reduction in the number of flights by
about four percent. That is roughly eighteen hundred flights, So
it's being spread around right American Delta, United Southwest Alaska

(01:04):
and they're all sort of pitching in saying they're going
to help here by reducing the number of flights. They
do believe most of their flights will continue on as planned,
but we're creeping up the next week, according to Transportation
Secretary Sean Duffy, into ten percent of flight by the
end of next week being reduced. That would be more

(01:26):
in the neighborhood of thirty five hundred to four thousand flights.
There's a haftier load. We do have a vote today.
I don't know exactly when it's scheduled for, but we're
supposed to have another vote today in the Senate, and
it looks like there's been a change of plan as
to what people are being asked to vote on. It
doesn't necessarily include anything having to do with healthcare just yet,

(01:50):
so we'll see where that goes. But they've already had
fourteen votes in the Senate that have failed to end
this shutdown. This Sean Duffy's already said, look, if this
continues on, it's only going to get worse, because then
we're looking at air traffic controllers who've already gone without
two full paychecks, moving into a third and possibly a

(02:12):
fourth paycheck, and for many of them, that's absolutely just
going to be unsustainable.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Jessica, let me ask you this. We're already seeing some
effects in Detroit, not necessarily here in Grand Rapids we're
broadcasting from yet. But I imagine like the big hub areas
like Chicago, Minneapolis and Midwest. I mean, if you're going
through one of those airpoints to see your point, if
you don't have a direct flight like the Kellys, then
you're probably gonna you're probably gonna have to plan that

(02:39):
you're going to either be delayed or going to be
hit hard by this.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Right, Yeah, you know how you guys, everybody knows how
this works. Right, A couple of flights get affected, it
trickles out, there's a ripple effect and suddenly like half
the flights are affected because a few got canceled, or
because then everybody tries to read books, right and every
you know, and so it's a cascade of pms. The
airlines say they're going to help there there. I'll we'll

(03:05):
see how that works. But they say they're going to
do they're going to offer refunds if they can't like
rebook you re eligibly quickly and they're going to be
pretty flexible about giving refunds, including for those economy tickets
that say non refundable, you know, So that it does
sound like everybody is going to try to make this work,
but you're right, there will be people who experience a

(03:27):
delay that seems never ending, and then it's kind of like,
what was the point of booking the trip. I already
needed to be there, so just cancel me or just
outright cancelations. So that that is going to be a problem.
We are going to see that ripple out. October is
the best months to fly in the US, I believe,
with the least amount of weather delay in October. Now

(03:49):
we're creeping, obviously into into a time of year where
if this is compounded by weather delays, we could see
far more cancelations and far more delays that are not
attributed to the shutdown. So everybody needs to sort of
kind of get right. I mean, Shawn Duffy already said
he booked his kids' flights home for the holidays. They're

(04:11):
they're you know, going to school, they're they're off. He's like, please,
you know, book your flight, you know, do life, but
just expect for life to change.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Snow in the forecast here in West Michigan with Box
News Radio Jessica Rosenthal. Thanks for your time today, Thank
you