More Chicago Flights Delayed And Canceled As Shutdown Continues

Air travel is no easy task lately.

The government shutdown is entering it's 2nd month and along with it comes more flight delays and cancelations. Air traffic controllers (nearly 13,000 of them) and TSA agents have been working without pay for a month now.

As FlyChicago's delay and cancelation tracker shows, there's been an uptick in both at O'Hare and at Midway.

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At O'Hare in the last 24 hours, 145 flights were delayed and 8 were canceled. And as of Wednesday morning, about 20 flights had already been delayed. Most of the delays lasted anywhere from 15-30 minutes.

Meanwhile at Midway, 6 flights were canceled and the average delay time was 45 minutes and up.

The issue comes at an unusual time for O'Hare. They just set a passenger record in July of over 8.26 million passengers, making it the busiest summer in the airport's history. And now, Thanksgiving travel is just a few weeks away.

The delays and cancelations are going on due to an ongoing staffing shortage for air traffic controllers. A post from the FAA said in part:

As we continue to reiterate, we will never compromise on safety. When staffing shortages occur, the FAA will reduce the flow of air traffic to maintain safety. This may result in delays or cancellations.

Experts are only expecting the number of flight cancelations at the two Chicago airports (and most other airports in the U.S.) to keep rising as the government stays shutdown.

If you're booking your air tickets for the holidays now, just make sure you leave a big enough time gap between flights.