Milwaukee fliers brace for more hours-long delays as FAA plans to cut flights amid staffing shortages

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Major U.S. airports are already experiencing lengthy delays tied to the government shutdown, and soon, things could get a lot worse.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday, Nov. 5, that the FAA will start cutting flights Friday at 40 major airports to ease the burden on air traffic controllers.

It’s unclear if Mitchell International Airport will be among the airports directly affected, but even if it’s not, fliers could see very long delays.

We spoke with travelers at Mitchell who were delayed for hours Wednesday because of staffing shortages in Phoenix. They’re bracing for things to get worse if the FAA cuts flights.

Meredith Hubble was one of the passengers flying to Phoenix. She said as she was getting ready at home for her 5:05 p.m. departure time, “I got an automatic message that my flight had been delayed 5.5 hours.”

Hubble was already preparing for a less-than-ideal trip to Arizona. “It’s not a vacation. I am actually visiting my elderly mother who has dementia. And I’m going to a funeral, as well, tomorrow.”

Hubble worked early, from home; her husband made plans to drive her. But then a ground delay was issued in Phoenix, at one point averaging more than three hours.

It threw Meredith’s day -and potentially her entire trip- into disarray.

With a new 1 a.m. arrival time, she was planning a quick nap in Phoenix before an early morning, two-hour drive to her destination.

If there are no more delays.

Hubble said, “Well, there are no guarantees. This is just the information I received. So now I’m here in time to catch the 9:30 flight.”

She’s one of millions of travelers bracing for uncertainty as the ripple effects of the longest government shutdown in history continue outward.

Phoenix’s ground delay was due to staffing. So was a two-hour ground stop in Newark.

In Washington Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced, “There is going to be a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations.”

That starts Friday if the shutdown doesn’t end.

TSA staffers and air traffic controllers are about to miss a second full paycheck.

Nick Daniels, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said on CNN, “They're not calling in sick. They're calling in saying, ‘I don't have child care today. What do you want me to do? I can't pay for it. I can't pay for the gas, and I can't pay for my utilities.’”

A spokesperson for Mitchell wasn’t sure Wednesday if it would be among the 40 airports to have flights cut. But even if it’s not, departures and arrivals will be delayed.

Hubble told us, “It has sort of been on my radar that this could happen, so I suppose I’m not surprised.”

One industry analyst calculates as many as 1,800 flights could be cut Friday.

Meredith Hubble is scheduled to fly back from Phoenix Sunday but is already thinking ahead to if, or when, her flight is cancelled.