Shutdown in America.

American airlines canceled more than 2,100 flights on Sunday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has warned that if the federal government shutdown continues through the busy Thanksgiving travel holiday, air traffic across the country could be extremely slow.

The slowdown in flights at the country’s 40 busiest airports continues for the third day and its impact is also visible. The FAA last week ordered flight reductions at the nation’s busiest airports because some air traffic controllers, who have not been paid for nearly a month, stopped coming to work.

Delay reported in 7,000 flights

Moreover, according to a website, around 7,000 flights were reported delayed on Sunday alone. More than 1,000 flights were canceled on Friday and more than 1,500 on Saturday. The FAA’s cuts began at 4% on Friday and will increase to 10 percent by Nov. 14. This cut will be effective from 6 am to 10 pm local time and will affect all commercial airlines.

A maximum of 570 flights were canceled at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Sunday. After that, at least 265 flights were canceled at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. In Georgia, weather may also be a factor, with the Atlanta-based National Weather Service warning of widespread cold conditions through Tuesday.

Shortage of staff at airport

The FAA said delays at New York’s Newark and LaGuardia airports are averaging about 75 minutes due to staffing shortages. Michigan’s Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport was mostly empty Sunday morning, with wait times at security checkpoints minimal as departures and arrivals boards were filled with reports of delays and cancellations.

Huge decline in American air traffic

On Sunday, Duffy warned that if the shutdown continued, there could be a huge decline in US air traffic. He said that there may be a need to cut flights by another 20 percent, especially when controllers are not getting salaries for the second consecutive time. Duffy said that day by day more controllers are not coming to work. He prepared Americans for the challenges they face during the busy Thanksgiving holiday season.

“After two weeks, as we get closer to Thanksgiving travel, I think air travel will slow down to a lot less because everyone wants to visit their families,” Duffy said.

Air traffic controllers did not get salary

He said that with very few controllers working, only a few flights would take off and land and thousands of flights would be cancelled. I think a lot of Americans are angry. Duffy said unless these air traffic controllers are paid, it will get worse. The government has been short of air traffic controllers for years, and several presidential administrations have tried to persuade controllers nearing retirement age to stay on the job. Duffy said the shutdown has worsened the problem, causing some air traffic controllers to accelerate their retirement.

Canceling flights a political move

Duffy rejected Democratic accusations that canceling the flights was a political ploy, saying it was necessary due to increasing accidents in an overloaded system. Duffy said that I needed to take action to protect people. I’m doing the best I can with the trouble the Democrats have thrown at me.

Airlines for America, a trade group representing U.S. airline companies, said delays related to air traffic control staff shortages reached more than 3,000 hours on Saturday, the most during the shutdown, and 71 percent of delays were caused by staffing shortages. According to Airlines for America, from October 1 to November 7, the controller outage caused inconvenience to more than 4 million passengers on American airlines.