U.S. airlines canceled more than 2,100 flights on Sunday as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that air traffic across the nation could “slow to a trickle” if the federal government shutdown lingers into the busy Thanksgiving travel holiday season.
The slowdown at 40 of the nation’s busiest airports, a list that includes BWI Marshall Airport, is now in its third day and beginning to cause more widespread disruptions. The FAA last week ordered flight cuts at the nation’s busiest airports as some air traffic controllers, who have gone unpaid for nearly a month, have stopped showing up for work.
In addition, some 7,000 flight delays were reported on Sunday alone, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks air travel disruptions. The FAA reductions started Friday at 4% and will increase to 10% by Friday.
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta had the most cancellations Sunday, with more than 570, followed by Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, with at least 265.
Stadium flyover: Air Force One did a flyover of the Washington Commanders’ game against the Detroit Lions on Sunday at Northwest Stadium in Landover after returning from a presidential trip to Florida. “Was that the greatest flyover ever??!” Trump said on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews as he was en route to the “Salute to Service” game. “They say whoever flies Air Force One.. they’re the best pilots. And we just saw that!” His attendance made him the first sitting president in nearly a half-century to attend a regular-season NFL contest.
BBC interview: The head of the BBC and the British broadcaster’s top news executive both resigned Sunday after criticism of the way the organization edited a speech by Trump. The BBC said Director-General Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness had both decided to leave the corporation. Britain’s publicly funded national broadcaster has been criticized for editing a speech Trump made on Jan. 6, 2021, before protesters attacked the Capitol in Washington. Critics said that the way the speech was edited for a BBC documentary last year was misleading and cut out a section where Trump said that he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
Syrian president: Two decades ago, Ahmad al-Sharaa was held in a U.S.-run detention center in Iraq after joining al-Qaida militants fighting against American forces there. Few would have predicted that he would go on to become the first Syrian president to visit Washington since the country’s independence in 1946. Al-Sharaa met with Trump in Saudi Arabia in May, where the U.S. president announced that he would lift decades of sanctions. The two men will meet again on Monday in Washington, where Syria is widely expected to officially join the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group.
—From Associated Press and wire reports