Flight reductions ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration will continue to disrupt schedules at Denver International Airport into the week, with dozens of flights scheduled for Sunday and Monday already canceled and delays ticking up.
Airport workers — including air traffic controllers, technicians, safety inspectors and security screeners — are among the essential federal employees forced to work without pay since the federal government shutdown began Oct. 1, leading to a spike in absences and safety concerns.
The FAA on Friday ordered at major airports, including DIA, and will increase the cuts to 10% by Nov. 14.
U.S. on Friday said the cuts could increase to 15% or 20% of flights if the shutdown continues.
More than 60 DIA flights — including 30 departing and 34 incoming flights — were canceled on Saturday, . Another 327 flights were delayed.
As of 2:45 p.m. Sunday, 71 flights headed in and out of DIA had been canceled, according to . Nearly 40 of those canceled flights were set to take off from the Denver airport, and 34 were scheduled to arrive from airports across the country.
At that time, 322 flights across 11 airlines — including Southwest, United, SkyWest, Frontier and Delta — had been delayed, flight tracking data shows.
Those five airlines had already canceled 58 flights scheduled for Monday at DIA as of Sunday afternoon, 32 that were supposed to depart Denver and 26 scheduled to arrive in the city, .
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
