Lauren Chavez used to come to the rescue with a series of horror stories on Tiktok with videos showing people harassing US airports for hours on end.
She decided to play it safe, arriving at Los Angeles International Airport with her 4-year-old daughter and fiance in tow six hours early for their afternoon flight home to Albuquerque on Friday.
But the mood in Lax is calm as he sits in a Disney sweatshirt he bought while spending a few days exploring Disneyland and Disney California adventure. With the exception of a few flights that were delayed 30 minutes to an hour, most appeared to be working on schedule.
“We expect long TSA lines. The airport we have [in Albuquerque] it’s too big. So LAX Kind of scares us, we don’t know what to expect,” Chavez, 28, said.
With the government announcing this week it will require airlines to reduce the number of flights to reduce the risk during the government shutdown, travelers have been experiencing major disruptions. Flight reductions are expected to increase in the next few days as the Federal Aviation Administration Scare back air travel by pressuring traffic controllers, who have been working unpaid during the shutdown.
According to the emergency order issued by the Trump Administration, airlines were required to cut flights by 4% on Friday and start by 6% on Thursday.
More than 3,600 flights — domestic and those in and out of the US — were delayed Saturday at 11 AM PST, and more than 1,000 were canceled, according to its website’s live tracker.
At LAX, 21 flights were canceled and 63 were delayed as of 11 AM Saturday. Domestic flights to La are also affected, with 25 cancellations and 68 delays for those flights.
Lisa James is worried that the government shutdown could cause chaos when she hosts a five-day Caribbean cruise. When he got full on Friday, the 45-year-old congressman found his Southwest flight home to Chicago and the Sun Mountains in Minnesota was delayed for about an hour.
“It’s annoying and scary,” she said with a group of friends sitting on a bench in terminal 1 surrounded by their matching pink suits.
The irony, he said, was that he didn’t even want to go home.
“If only I had vacation money all the time, I said,” she said. “But you have to go home, heal, take care of the children, feed the dog.”
Travelers check out the flight information display at LAX on Friday.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Raven Popescu, an audio engineer, was cheating on his phone to view more than 15 pieces of luggage and housework instruments, sound equipment and cables for Rock R & B HANCH City Drive.
“We woke up this morning and thought our flight might be cancelled,” said the 29-year-old.
Their flight to Nashville, where they were traveling to catch a show, was apparently unknown. The way home would be a different story, he said.
“I’m a little worried we might get pulled over in Nashville,” he said.
The threat of extended delays and cancellations has left travelers frustrated and worried. Some have tried to change their strategies, but others are simply hoping for the best.
Early on Friday morning, Ginger Campbell, 65, logged on to her phone to check her Airline Airlines app for the renewal of her flight to Chicago scheduled for 5:30 in the morning.
Nothing had changed. His flight out of lax was listed on time.
But Campbell, who is traveling to help her 81-year-old mother undergo dental surgery, was concerned her flight could be canceled before Saturday morning. And even if this trip goes well, it may not be true about his return flight
“My whole family goes to Kansas City, so I don’t know if we’ll be able to make this flight if the shutdown continues,” Campbell said. “I feel like this is unnecessary pressure that we’ve asked for that we don’t need.”
Some have chosen to cancel their travel plans entirely to avoid the impact of airliners.
Beverly Gillette decided to cancel her early morning flight to Brooklyn, NY, Thursday night after reading multiple reports of overworked traffic controllers, unpaid TSA workers and understaffing.
He had planned to visit his daughter who had just undergone minor surgery. But he worried that Lax and JfK, two airports in Democrat-Mantrity States, could get “retaliatory measures from the government.”
“Because it wasn’t an emergency trip, it was just the smart thing to do, but it’s not what I want to do,” she said.
The recent cutbacks caused by the government shutdown have made it costlier for many people, Gillette said.
“As if we weren’t angry enough about how things are working in Washington right now, now we have to be sad because we can’t see our friends and family.”
Staff members Jenny Jarvie and Kaitlin Huaman contributed to this report.
