“Not Going To Get To Thanksgiving”: Officials Issue Warning At Busy Illinois Airport

The longest government shutdown in American history has ended, but we're not out of the woods yet.

One big hope now that the shutdown has ended is that flights and flight schedules will go back to normal, with air traffic controllers and TSA agents fully staffed again. But that may not be the case. Before the measure passed the House, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke at Chicago O'Hare, one of the most impacted airports by all this.

Duffy said that even though the shutdown has ended, flight cuts will continue until the FAA sees safety metrics improve and the timeline to a normal flight schedule is unclear, just 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. The safety metrics include the ATC staffing levels going back to what they were.

How Bad Will It Be Actually?

It's really a crunch for time to see how much of this will be resolved by Thanksgiving.

Airlines are hoping to recover their flight schedules within the next week. But the FAA's 6% flight reduction at O'Hare and other major airports may still be in place when Thanksgiving week comes around.

And people don't want to fly this year. Amtrak is expected to have a record Thanksgiving travel this year. And stats show consumer confidence in air travel has declined, go figure. The American Hotel and Lodging Association found that 20% of people have changed their Thanksgiving travel plans as this has gone on.

Travel experts are recommending that for domestic flights over Thanksgiving, you should get to the airport about 2 hours early (remember the TSA staffing could still be low by then).