WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The record-long government shutdown is taking a toll on air travel across the nation and some of those impacts are being felt in Palm Beach International Airport (PBIA).
On Friday, the FAA began temporarily cutting flight operations by 4% at 40 of the busiest airports across the country. Officials say those reductions will reach 10% by Nov. 14th — if the shutdown continues.
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WPTV’s Zitlali Solache spent the afternoon at PBIA, where minor impacts were seen. While the airport is not on the FAA’s reduction list, data shows 11 flights were delayed Saturday afternoon.
“Getting out of Cincinnati was just so difficult,” said Palm Beach Gardens resident Ron Davis. “I was delayed for several hours.”
Davis is a frequent flyer and said it’s been a difficult week. Hundreds of passengers arriving from New York also experienced delays.
“We’re just on the runway probably for like an hour or so,” said traveler Aly Ignasiak. “It stinks because like you feel bad for all the workers that are not being paid right now.”
According to FlightAware, 14 flights were cancelled at PBIA between Friday evening to Saturday evening.
Other flyers were bracing for setbacks, but in some cases, solutions were found.
“I thought I was very lucky that they found another route,” said traveler Peter Martin, whose flight was initially delayed for more than three hours. “JetBlue found another route to get us home.”
With the holiday travel just weeks away, many travelers are hoping things return to normal soon.
“It’ll be interesting to see what happens but I fly back next week, so hopefully all this is done by then,” said Ignasiak.
