The surge in flight delays and cancellations has caused travel snarls nationwide, and it isn’t just the passengers who are sounding off about plane woes.
Viral videos posted on social media this week showed pilots making candid cabin announcements about the sorry state of things on the tarmac.
A passenger who said they were on a flight from New York to Dallas posted a video on Sunday that showed an unnamed Southwest pilot talking to passengers about the aggravation caused by flight delays.
“I don’t really care what your political persuasion is, but you should really call your senator,” the pilot said. “Because I’ll tell ya, this is costing the airlines millions of dollars.”
The pilot told passengers they were about 90 minutes from takeoff, because at least 30 planes were waiting on the runway.
“So, it’s frustrating. It’s really frustrating for me. Because right now, it’s gonna cost about two hours of our lives on the ground before we even take off. Spend all that gas, all that money, and it just rolls into the rest of the system,” the pilot said.
“So right now, we’re at a 4% reduction in flight capacity. Next week, we go to 10,” he added. “Last night, I had a six-hour delay in Houston, and the weather was perfect. It’s because the air traffic controllers aren’t getting paid. So, it’s a weekend!”
A TikTok account with the ID “sisterhoodwomentravelers” posted a separate video on Saturday, in which a Delta captain made a pre-departure announcement stating that he would not take off unless he could assure their safety.
“I know we probably have quite a few nervous flyers today. It is perfectly understandable,” the unnamed captain said. “I want to emphasize, this aircraft does not move a single inch unless both my co-captain, Michael, and myself are absolutely certain it’s safe to do so.”
He added that he’d promised his daughter that he’d get her an ice cream.
“That being said, nothing, and I mean, absolutely nothing unsafe comes in between me, that little girl, and her ice cream,” the Delta captain said.
A separate video from a United flight posted to Instagram by journalist Nayeema Raza also showed a pilot making a cabin announcement about flight woes.
“I haven’t had a night like this, and I’ve been at United 29 years,” the United pilot said. He added that it was a “very challenging night,” but there was little he could do about delays.
“I’m very sorry,” the pilot said, saying he understood there was “nothing worse” than being stuck in a plane while in transit.
Delta, Southwest, and United did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
The “Saturday Night Live” crew got in on the action, too.
A skit from this weekend’s show featured cast members James Austin Johnson and Kam Patterson playing bored pilots in the cockpit who hop on the mic to give increasingly bizarre updates to passengers about sexting, dating, and, of course, the “576 planes” in front of them.
“We should have you in Cleveland by Christmas,” Johnson’s character said.
Traffic chaos roils as air traffic controllers go without pay
The US is grappling with the longest government shutdown in its history, which has stretched into day 41.
At least 13,000 air traffic controllers have gone without pay during the shutdown, per a September 30 plan from the Department of Transportation.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency order on Thursday that reduced flights by 10% at 40 airports.
There were 4,374 cancellations between Friday and Sunday, per data from the aviation analytics company Cirium.
“We had 81 staffing triggers throughout the national airspace yesterday. That means controllers weren’t coming to work,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on CNN on Sunday, adding that travel woes are “only going to get worse.”
Duffy also warned that pre-Thanksgiving air travel would likely be “reduced to a trickle,” and that many people would be unable to fly to see their families.
Some air traffic controllers have continued to work without pay throughout the shutdown.
President Donald Trump suggested in a Monday Truth Social post that air traffic controllers who called in sick should be punished. Those who showed up for work should receive a “BONUS of $10,000 per person for distinguished service to our Country,” Trump said. He later said he did not know where the money for such a bonus would come from.
Washington is moving closer to resolving the shutdown. Six Democratic senators broke with the party line and voted yes on a measure on Sunday night, an initial step to reopening the government.
Late on Monday, the Senate passed a funding package bill that’s poised to end the shutdown. The shutdown will not end immediately; the package must now be sent to the House of Representatives for approval.
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