Due to staffing shortages among air traffic controllers amid the government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, has announced an overall 10% reduction in air traffic at 40 "high-impact" airports across the country. San Antonio International Airport, or SAT, is not among those listed, transportation officials announced Nov. 6.

Current situation

During a Nov. 5 press conference, Sean Duffy, U.S. secretary of transportation, and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced the flight reduction. Duffy said the decision to reduce air traffic was made to ensure a safe environment for air travel.

“We are going to proactively make decisions to keep the airspace safe,” Duffy said at the press conference. “... We had to have a gut check of, 'What is our job? Is it to make sure there's minimal delays or minimal cancellations, or is our job to make sure we make the hard decisions to continue to keep the airspace safe?' That is our job—safety."

Bedford said the reduction will help ease pressure on traffic controllers.


“We're not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators are telling us we can take action today to prevent things from deteriorating,” Bedford said. “So the system is extremely safe today; it will be extremely safe tomorrow. And if the pressures continue to build, even after we take these measures, we'll come back and take additional measures."

Of the 40 airports impacted, four Texas airports—two in Houston and two in Dallas—will undergo a 10% reduction by Nov. 14.

The affected Texas airports include:
According to a news release, the flight reductions will occur in phases.


Airlines are mandated to issue full refunds for cancelled flights, but are not obligated to cover secondary costs, the news release states.


The conditions

In a statement, SAT Media Manager Tonya Hope said San Antonio is not directly affected by the reductions, but reductions at other airports may still impact travelers.

“While we are grateful that San Antonio International Airport is not among the airports identified by the Federal Aviation Administration, it is possible that travelers may be impacted by reductions in service at other airports,” Hope said in the statement.

She also noted that federal employees at SAT are continuing to work through the shutdown and that there have been no impacts to services.


“For now, we are proud to note that there have been no operational impacts at SAT as a result of the government shutdown. SAT’s security checkpoints continue to perform extremely well. Transportation Security Administration, US Customs and Border Protection and Air Traffic Control employees continue to perform their essential work, despite not being paid currently,” Hope said in the statement. “The airport and its partners, such as the San Antonio Food Bank, are working hard to support SAT’s federal employees.”