While travelers across the United States are experiencing delays and cancellations as a result of the ongoing federal government shutdown, it’s mostly business as usual at Boston’s Logan International Airport.
Essential federal workers — including some 13,000 air traffic controllers and roughly 50,000 TSA officers — are required to work during the shutdown without pay. The Federal Aviation Administration said over the weekend that air traffic control staffing issues were causing delays at airports in Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta and Newark. The administration also said that they expect issues at airports in Las Vegas and Phoenix.
But according to data provided to GBH News by aviation analytics company Cirium, Boston’s on-time performance has remained virtually unchanged since the start of the shutdown on October 1.
While travelers headed out of Logan may have noticed some hiccups over the past three weeks, those delays and cancellations were “likely related to the weather conditions of late,” said Cirium’s Mike Arnot. That includes a nor’easter that brought intense wind and rain to the region over the October 13 long weekend.
“There’s very little to see here,” Arnot said in reference to Logan’s recent performance stats.
In the first three weeks of October, 71.47% of Logan flights took off within 15 minutes of the scheduled departure time, Cirium’s analysis shows. In September, that figure was 72.86%, only slightly better than the airport’s performance since the shutdown began.
Massport, the quasi-public agency that oversees operations at Logan, does not release performance statistics for the airport but says Cirium’s analysis is correct.
“We haven’t seen any impacts to staffing or anything else,” said Massport spokesman Benjamin Crawley. “Most delays as of late have been caused by weather or runway work.”
The share of Logan flights taking off within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure time is typically 78% or 79%, Cirium data shows. But in September, Logan was already performing slightly worse than years past — likely due to the runway work.
Crews at Logan have been conducting safety work on a critical runway since Sept. 2. Normal operations are set to resume in mid-November.
If the airport does see staffing issues stemming from the shutdown, the ongoing runway work could amplify delays and cancellations.
Crawley said Massport is in constant communication with its federal partners and will update passengers with any changes.
