Even if shutdown ends now, flying home for Thanksgiving could still be travel nightmare

Flying anywhere for the Thanksgiving holiday is likely to be tortuous for legions of travelers — even if the government shutdown ends today, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned on Friday

Flying anywhere for the Thanksgiving holiday is likely to be tortuous for legions of travelers — even if the government shutdown ends today, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned on Friday.

Hundreds of flights during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year could be affected by staffing shortages of air traffic controllers. The shortages have been exacerbated by the shutdown, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to implement unprecedented flight reductions.

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And those staff shortages — at least for now — appear to be set in stone for Thanksgiving, Duffy said.

'It's been awful': Passengers experience rough travels amid FAA flight disruptions03:36"So if the government opens on day one, will I see an immediate response from controllers? No, the union is telling me it’s going to take time to get them all back in," Duffy told CNN on Friday when asked if the flight reductions would spill into the holiday.