Updated 9:05 p.m.: White House Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke to the media around 8 p.m. to provide an update on the situation.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy briefed the media earlier in the evening and addressed the situation, providing an update on the state of U.S. air transportation.
“At 8:15 tonight Eastern time, we opened the airspace. Does that mean all flights are going to fly now? It’s going to be slow,” Duffy said.
“It’s going to take us some time to understand what happened this afternoon.”
Duffy spoke about the status of different types of flights. Penn State fans trying to get to the game might struggle as commercial flights are cleared of buildup at airport hubs. However, it appears the FAA will prioritize flights carrying larger groups, such as football teams trying to reach their destination this weekend.
“Finally, with general aviation. If we have planes that are carrying six people, that’s a lower priority. But this weekend we have movements that have 60, 80, 100 people on those planes, we’re going to prioritize those planes. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll see much better movements.”
While this doesn’t confirm that the Minnesota football team will be able to fly Saturday morning, Duffy’s description of priority flights matches that of a football team on a charter flight. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they occur.
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