The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday that short-haul flights to San Francisco International Airport would be delayed due to staffing shortages amid the federal government shutdown. The delays happened on the same day airlines began to reduce their flight schedules to meet the agency’s new policy.
Flights to SFO within 1,000 nautical miles, which included all flights within California and as far as Colorado, were briefly suspended before resuming later in the morning with major delays. Aircraft were not allowed to depart to SFO because of a reported lack of air traffic controllers needed to safely direct them.
Airport spokesperson Doug Yakel said the delays would not affect transcontinental flights or international flights to SFO. Morning delays at the airport were averaging 35 minutes.
In the FAA’s announcement of the temporary suspension of flights, it estimated delays could average 60 minutes with up to two hours in some cases.
The ground stop occurred on the same day major airports, like SFO, were expected to see a reduction in flights after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced earlier this week that he would be directing airlines to cancel up to 10 percent of flights across 40 airports due to staffing issues during the ongoing government shutdown.
Information, courtesy of flight records website FlightAware, showed 45 flights were canceled at SFO as of Friday morning. The majority of flights were associated with commuter airline SkyWest, which operates regional flights on behalf of several different airlines, and then followed by United Airlines.
Travelers were recommended to check with their airlines through their respective websites, phone apps, and personnel at the airport for further information.