Flights continued to be canceled or delayed at airports in the Southland and nationwide Tuesday due to the ongoing government shutdown, although the number of affected flights was lower than it was over the weekend.
As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, 88 flights had been delayed at Los Angeles International Airport and another 54 had been canceled, according to the tracking website FlightAware.
Hollywood Burbank Airport had eight flights delayed and four canceled Tuesday, and John Wayne Airport in Orange County had 28 delays and three cancellations, according to FlightAware.
Long Beach Airport had eight delays and one cancellation.
The website said 3,087 flights were delayed nationwide and 1,753 were canceled Tuesday. On Sunday, more than 8,600 flights were delayed nationwide and nearly 3,000 were canceled.
The problems are blamed in staffing issues with air traffic controllers. Controllers are considered essential workers and have been instructed to continue working despite the shutdown. But after going without paychecks for nearly a month, some have taken second jobs or are calling in sick, compounding existing staffing shortages, National Air Traffic Controllers Association officials told reporters.
Federal transportation officials said this has led to “staffing triggers” at air traffic facilities nationally, leading to “strain on the system.”
To combat the shortages and avoid safety issues, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced last week that capacity would be reduced at 40 high-volume airports through at least Friday, including LAX.
According to a DOT statement issued Thursday night, flight capacity at the affected airports would be cut by 4% through Monday, 6% on Tuesday, 8% Thursday and 10% by Friday.
On Tuesday, Duffy said the air travel system was slowly stabilizing after a chaotic weekend of delays and cancellations.
“Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were very rough travel days. However, today has been a much better day,” he said.
In addition to capacity reductions, the Federal Aviation Administration is also limiting commercial space launches and re-entries to the hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time. Parachute operations and photo missions near affected airports were also being prohibited.
Airports in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Ontario are among those impacted by the capacity cuts, but airfields not among the 40 on the list could still see ripple-effect impacts on flight operations.
LAX is the busiest airfield in California and among the top five in the nation.
Airlines have been issuing alerts to passengers to be aware of possible flight impacts, and the major airlines are waiving their usual procedures to issue refunds for canceled fights.
The shutdown occurred when Congress failed to pass funding legislation for the new fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1-Sept. 30.
Hope emerged this week that the shutdown might end soon, as the U.S. Senate passed a short-term funding bill Monday and sent it to the House, which could schedule a vote as soon as Wednesday.