Duffy says air travel may take ‘days if not a week’ to return to normal, even after shutdown ends

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday that air travel could take ‘days if not a week’ to get back to normal once the government shutdown ends.

‘If the government opens tomorrow — which it won’t, it doesn’t look like — it’s going to take us days to assess the controllers coming back into their facilities or their towers,’ Duffy told ‘America Reports.’

‘And then once we start to move those numbers back down to zero on our required 10%, the problem is the airlines then have to put those planes back on for booking again,’ he said.

Duffy said there will be a lag of several days to a week before airlines and airports can return to normal operations.

‘It’s going to take some time for the airlines to respond. So once we see more controllers in the towers, then the airlines have to respond to that,’ Duffy said. ‘It can be days, if not a week, before we get back to full-force flights when the shutdown ends.’

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.