Chris Sununu

The FAA says it was forced to reduce the number of flights at major airports because of staffing shortages of air traffic controllers who were required to work without pay.

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth urged regulators to release the data behind that decision, suggesting the Trump administration may have weaponized the aviation system to score political points during the shutdown.

Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.

The head of Airlines for America, Chris Sununu, told the Senate Aviation Subcommittee that airlines support a bill that would ensure that air traffic controllers get paid during future government shutdowns.

The FAA says it was forced to reduce the number of flights at major airports because of staffing shortages of air traffic controllers who were required to work without pay.

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth urged regulators to release the data behind that decision, suggesting the Trump administration may have weaponized the aviation system to score political points during the shutdown.

Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.

Airlines seem pretty confident that they can ramp up quickly.

I mean, once the air traffic control situation is stabilized, maybe within just a few days of getting the word from the FAA.

Chris Sununu is the CEO of Airlines for America, the industry trade group.

He addressed this question on a call with reporters yesterday.

Sununu says it might take up about a week for airlines to get back to full pre-shutdown normal, as he put it.

But he is optimistic that they can get there before the Thanksgiving holiday rush that begins in earnest next week.

It's about being proactive and making sure that the American public knows it is absolutely safe to book a flight.

It is absolutely safe.

We slow the system down to ensure that safety, right, because you don't want to get to a critical point.

So everyone's putting in the overtime.

It's not going to be easy, but all the airlines are stepping up and doing everything they can to make sure that customers aren't just being hard canceled.

They're being moved to flights when they can.

what value add does the federal department of education bring when you return power to states and as a governor i can tell you that's very important and not just it's not just the money it's the control how those dollars are spent all the red tape that comes with the federal department of education when it comes to special ed school choice homeschooling charter schools whatever it might be um let states have those options look i might disagree i'll use an extreme example i might disagree with gavin newsom in california and a lot of things but believe me