BILLINGS— Billings Logan International Airport will see its first flight cancellation as a result of the FAA directive to reduce 10% of air traffic at 40 major U.S. airports.
The airport received notice Friday that a Saturday afternoon round-trip flight from Denver to Billings will be canceled, according to Director of Aviation and Transit Jeff Roach.
Watch to see what travelers can expect:
The airport has not received notice for further cancellations.
“It's really too soon to tell if we'll see more cancellations. But we do expect, as the percentage of flights that are impacted increase at the larger hub airports, that we’ll ultimately see some of those impacts here in Billings, but we don't know yet what those impacts may be,” said Roach Friday morning.
The FAA directive is due to the government shutdown, which has resulted in air traffic employees working without pay.
According to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, Friday is starting with 4% in air traffic reductions nationwide, but the reductions will gradually increase to 10% over the next week.
“We had talked about 10%. As I reviewed that with the Safety Team at the FAA, they said the safest way to do this is to get to 10%, to do a step approach…(starting at) 4%, and then as you see, four days later, we do two, then two days later, we do another two,” Duffy said in a televised press conference Friday morning.
Several airlines, such as United and Delta, have issued notices on their websites, updating travelers on which flights are canceled.
“We just ask people to come to the airport well in advance of their flight, keep in touch with their carrier on the flight status and any changes that may be needed and again pack their patience,” said Roach.
