Flight disruptions likely to linger through Thanksgiving, experts say

Flight disruptions' impact on holiday travel

Even with the government on its way to reopen, travel will still be impacted for holiday travel. FOX 9's Mike Manzoni has the latest.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Even if the shutdown were to end before the busy Thanksgiving travel period, experts said flight disruptions would likely continue for days or weeks as the government continues to grapple with a shortage of air traffic controllers.

Thanksgiving travel uncertain as shutdown end appears near

What we know:

Although the longest government shutdown in history appears to be nearing its end, even if a deal were to be reached this week, disruptions at the nation’s busiest airports could continue through Thanksgiving, experts said. 

Even before the shutdown began on Oct. 1, the Federal Aviation Administration had already faced a shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers. Compounding that problem, some of them quit after the shutdown started because they were not being paid.

Thanksgiving impact:

"I’ve had questions about what happens for Thanksgiving," said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy during a news conference in Chicago on Tuesday. "There’s a lot of Thanksgiving travel. What’s going to happen during that timeframe? I’m going to tell you we are not going to get to Thanksgiving."

Duffy was referring to what would happen if the shutdown were to drag on.

‘This doesn’t mean that this is all over’: Flight disruptions could persist for weeks

What could happen next:

"I don’t think we’re going to see a repeat of what we saw over the weekend with some really, really nasty massive disruptions," said Kyle Potter, editor of Thrifty Traveler, a Minnesota-based travel website. "But I do think we’ll see some continuing long delays, especially at really busy airports on the East Coast and in the Midwest...."

Potter said that even after the shutdown ends, it will take a couple of days for the air traffic controllers to receive paychecks and even longer for them to get backpay. In addition, he said it would take several days for the government to lift the mandatory flight reductions.