Rio Grande Valley airports see few flight cancellations, delays during federal government shutdown

Dozens of passengers left the McAllen Miller International Airport with luggage in tow on Tuesday afternoon after a Delta flight from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport landed about 4:30 p.m. 

That’s because Austin was not among the 40 airports directed by the Federal Aviation Administration this month to curtail and cancel flights in an effort to prevent safety issues with overworked air traffic controllers. 

That was the case for an earlier United Airlines flight from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, which was slated to arrive in McAllen just before 4 p.m. but was cancelled instead. There was a second United Airlines flight from Houston arriving in McAllen by 6 p.m. on Tuesday, which did arrive on time. 

The reality is that there are more than 23,000 flights that operate each day nationwide, so thousands of flight cancellations sound like a lot, but it’s a drop in the bucket, said one aviation expert.