“If you are flying Friday or in the next ten days and need to be there or don’t want to be stranded, I highly recommend booking a backup ticket on another carrier,” Biffle wrote.
Frontier didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, the nation’s longest government shutdown threatens to wreck up to a fifth of fliers’ plans as the holiday travel season approaches.
Thanksgiving, falling on Nov. 27 this year, is just three weeks away, and government officials are raising concerns about the potential for even deeper air traffic reductions.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday that air traffic controllers will miss their second paycheck this coming Tuesday, if the government shutdown continues, which could cause cancellations to 15% or even 20% of flights.
If more air traffic controllers come to work, then the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would be able to move the numbers “in the other direction,” Duffy said. But, as the shutdown continues, holiday plans are subject to the growing staff reductions.
“Let’s end the shutdown, and let’s let the Congress debate their issues, but let’s not hold the American people hostage,” he said.
The government shutdown started on Oct. 1 and is the longest in U.S. history, passing the prior record-long shutdown—during President Donald Trump’s first term between December 2018 and January 2019—on Wednesday. The shutdown entered its 38th day on Friday.
But even when the government opens back up, Duffy said it will take some time for airlines to respond by putting flights back out for booking.
“It can be days if not a week before we get back to full force flights when the shutdown ends,” he said.
