Travelers Brace for Holiday Chaos      11/07 06:11

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Travelers braced for canceled flights, scrambled plans and 
holidays stranded in airports as a U.S. government shutdown threatened to snarl 
trips across the country.

   News that the Federal Aviation Administration will reduce air traffic at 40 
airports beginning Friday set off a flurry of worry among those planning trips.

   "Oh no," said 31-year-old Talia Dunyak, who is due to fly next week from 
Vienna to Philadelphia, among the airports targeted by the FAA for flight 
cutbacks. "I'm really hoping my flights don't get canceled."

   Dunyak is due to meet her newborn niece, have some business meetings and 
celebrate Thanksgiving with family during a carefully planned trip. Now she's 
wondering what will happen.

   "It's such a busy time to travel and there's not so many direct flights," 
said Dunyak, who works in public relations. "I might end up in some nightmare."

   Those worries were pervasive with Thanksgiving and the busiest travel days 
of the year looming ahead and a crush of passengers fearful of reliving a scene 
out of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."

   Though the exact parameters of the FAA's plan were not released, it promised 
to upend trips in broad swaths of the country. Affected airports are dotted 
across more than two dozen states and include some of the busiest hubs, 
including Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Orlando, Miami, and San Francisco. In some 
of the biggest cities -- such as New York, Houston and Chicago -- multiple 
airports will be affected.

   It was enough to cause Laura Adams to ditch plans of flying altogether.

   Adams lives in Vero Beach, Florida, and typically flies with her husband for 
Thanksgiving with his family in Fair Hope, Alabama. They'll now make a 10-hour 
drive instead.

   "We really felt quite uneasy and just didn't want to risk having a flight 
cancellation or a delay or getting stuck," said Adams. "It just seems really 
risky."

   Though she's not a fan of long car trips, she's resigned herself to it, even 
if the shutdown ends and flights are restored.

   "Just kind of weighing the pros and cons, it just seems like a better 
option," she said.

   Jennifer Dombrowski, a 45-year-old American living in Bordeaux, France, 
likewise adapted her plans. She's due to travel next week to her hometown of 
Erie, Pennsylvania, for the first time in two years, and has opted to skirt 
U.S. airports altogether. She'll fly to Toronto, then drive to visit her 
parents, including a father with terminal cancer.

   "I don't really want to deal," she said.

   Major carriers like United, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines said they 
would offer refunds to passengers who opt not to fly, even if they purchased 
tickets that aren't normally refundable. And United Airlines said it would 
focus on cutting smaller regional routes.

   Joseph Trainor, 55, who shuttles between New York and his home in Boynton 
Beach, Florida, every week, canceled his flights for next week -- and is 
looking to book multiple backup routes farther down the road, in case future 
trips land on the chopping block.

   "I'm afraid the flights I'm on are going to cancel," he said. "It's going to 
cause a cascading effect throughout the system."

   Even with the safeguards of additional reservations, Trainor knows 
cancellations can ripple through the system and affect him anyway. Still, he's 
thinking about the Transportation Security Administration agents who have been 
going without pay in a shutdown that entered its 37th day on Thursday.

   "They're the heroes keeping the system going, and I don't know if the 
government realizes how much air traffic and our economy is based on that," 
Trainor said.