There Really Are Repercussions
We left for our vacation to Italy and connected through Newark Airport.
The flight was delayed leaving West Palm for several hours because of traffic control problems in Newark. Now, two weeks later we are returning through the same airport, and our flight from Newark to West Palm Beach was supposed to leave at 1:00 PM but as of 7PM we are still waiting. The purported reason was the same. Quite simply, DOGE cuts have consequences for everyday events. Or at least that has been what we have been told.
All around me sit people who are supposed to be somewhere else. They are stuck in a kind of limbo with the only ones benefiting are the concession stands. Even the United Club stopped honoring day passes even though we purchased it with our tickets months ago. It simply had too many customers trying to take advantage of its offerings.
The Trump administration was told that firing thousands of FAA employees would result in chaos. The chaos is now impacting everyday Americans. The millions of Americans who travel for business or pleasure.
Trump and Musk got it all wrong. They didn’t cut costs…they broke the government or at least this part. This isn’t a political issue. It is the difference between competence and idiocy. No one voted for chaos, but chaos is what we have.
I can’t explain why Newark is the poster child for this. As someone who until recently flew between West Palm Beach and New York several times a month for business, I am quite familiar with delays. Delays were blamed on the weather or mechanical breakdown but seldom on traffic control.
Two hours have passed since I wrote the above. We are still waiting. One flight we were on was cancelled, and we were switched to another. Will it go out? A good question. I don’t have much hope but since I have checked luggage from our trip abroad, I have a dilemma as to what to do if this flight is cancelled. We are taking a wait-and-see approach.
It is now 8 pm and the flight we are now booked on has been delayed until 10:30. Depending on where I look for information, the delays are caused by runway work, weather, (it is clear as a bell in Newark and the plane is coming from Washington where my weather app states it is also clear) or a shortage of air traffic controllers.
The controllers for Newark airport are located at Philadelphia International Airport. The ABC affiliate in New York just did a story on major disruptions caused by “very few traffic controllers.” Planes are being diverted all up and down the East Coast.
My flight that was supposed to take off at 1 pm was cancelled, and I am now boarding at 10 pm. I have seen another news story on a travel blog confirming the ABC story. An FAA official is quoted as saying that there are not enough people to handle our system.
We finally take off at around 11 pm. The plane is supposed to land at Palm Beach and then go on to Denver. Between Newark and Palm Beach takes approximately 3 hours of flying time. I can’t believe that there will be a flight then going on to Denver.
And I am correct that when we land at 2 am, there are no passengers waiting at the gate. The plane will go to Denver but the next morning. The only reason that our flight took off was to pre-position the plane in Palm Beach.
More and more Americans’ flights are delayed or cancelled. It is now a common occurrence. There are also so many more near misses of two aircraft than in the past. How long can we operate with an antiquated air traffic control system and a shortage of controllers?
This is not something unique to the Trump administration. Delays were just as prevalent under President Biden. However, they are probably getting worse now than in the past because of the chaos of DOGE and Elon Musk.
At some point, things reach a braking point. We are probably there with the airline industry. This has been projected to happen for at least 20 years. Trump’s policies are just the straw that broke the camel’s back.
