'Roll with the punches': Airline travelers in Pittsburgh prepare for flight disruptions

Lynn Williams felt like she was taking a chance by not canceling her travel plans this week amid mounting unknowns surrounding air travel.

“(I) didn’t know if air traffic controllers were staffed. I didn’t know if they were in a good head space to be at work. I didn’t know if they needed additional staffing to make sure everything in the skies is clear for any possible collisions or anything,” Williams, 28, of Penn Hills said Thursday after arriving at Pittsburgh International Airport from visiting family in Florida. “But I went ahead and took the chance, and, luckily, we’re all OK.”

Williams was one of millions of travelers nationwide navigating travel uncertainty after the Federal Aviation Administration announced a 10% cut in air-traffic operations — a move likely to cause growing disruption and concern.

On Wednesday, the FAA released a list of 40 major U.S. airports where reductions are scheduled to begin Friday unless the federal government reopens.

While Pittsburgh International Airport wasn’t among those airports directly impacted, some travelers will undoubtedly encounter problems as delays and cancellations at other airports ripple through the system.

Among the impacted airports are those in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, New York City and Washington, D.C.

U.S. airlines were struggling Thursday to reschedule and cancel flights after the federal shutdown — the longest in U.S. history — forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 security agents to work without pay, as reported by Reuters.

Bob Kerlik, a Pittsburgh International Airport spokesman, said passengers have seen no “operational changes” because of the shutdown.

“While Pittsburgh International Airport is not among a published list of 40 airports impacted, we do have nonstop service to several of those markets. We advise passengers to check with their airline before coming to the airport in order to closely follow their flight status,” Kerlik said.

Westmoreland County Airport Authority Executive Director Gabe Monzo told TribLive that Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe has not been affected by the upheaval.

Most of Palmer’s connecting flights go through Southwest Florida International Airport rather than Orlando International Airport, which is on the list.

Todd Stevenson, who lives in Beaver County, headed to Pittsburgh International Airport to pick up his daughter and grandkids, ages 2 and 5, who were arriving from Newark, N.J.

As he sat waiting in the terminal, Stevenson expressed sympathy for air traffic controllers.

“They’re getting fed up with the nonsense. I mean, they show up to work, super stressful job, aren’t getting paid and they’re ticked off at the politicians who have created this mess,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson said his family took off without issue but added he was concerned about their return flight Sunday being canceled. If that happens, he said, he will have to drive roughly seven hours to take them home.

Newark Liberty International Airport is listed as one of the airports to be impacted.

Serene Moody, 54 and Jennifer Massa, 53, had a similar concern about returning home after Friday.

Moody is from Oklahoma, and Massa is from North Carolina. They both had just gotten off a connecting flight from Atalanta and said they were visiting Pittsburgh ahead of Saturday’s Penn State football game against Indiana.

Neither of them bought trip insurance. They’re scheduled to fly home Sunday through LaGuardia Airport in New York, one of the airports seeing reductions in air traffic along with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

“We’re just gonna roll with the punches,” Massa said.

North Huntingdon resident Cody Sabol arrived back in Pittsburgh after traveling to San Francisco for work.

Sabol, 30, is an artist who travels around the U.S. to do live speed painting for special events such as pro sporting events and fundraisers.

“When we book these flights, we sort of try to pick a longer layover, just in case anything happens, and we try to fly early rather than later, because I feel like the early flights have a greater success of … taking off,” Sabol said.

Because Sabol has to travel so much for work, he said he is unsure what his travel situation will look like in the coming days.

“I have a flight out to Scottsdale (Ariz.) on Sunday, and then after that, I’m not really sure what the outlook is going to be for the rest of the year, so it might be some heavy driving coming up soon,” Sabol said.

TribLive sought comment from the Air Line Pilots Association and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. Both unions referred to past public statements.

“Our country depends on safe air travel. This shutdown is adding unnecessary risk to the safety of our skies and places an unbearable burden on the front-line workers who protect us every day,” said Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, the largest airline pilot union in the world.

The flight attendants union also criticized the stalemate in Washington.

“Let’s be clear — this shutdown is the latest cruel attack on federal workers in a never-ending effort to demoralize dedicated civil servants and veterans in order to privatize all functions of government — in service to the greed of a few at the expense of the many,” the union’s statement says.