Sandi Dlugonski was one of the unlucky ones. The Stevensville resident was among many travelers across the country stuck in air travel delays and cancellations on Friday.

Dlugonski, who left work early to catch her flight, discovered when she arrived at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport that her trip to Miami for a wedding was delayed by an hour and 20 minutes.

She said she is “hopefully” coming back on Monday, but she’s worried, along with other travelers, that the FAA’s mandated reduction in flights at major airports across the country will impact her again on her return flight.

Forty airports — including BWI, Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport — were forced to reduce flights by 10% by Nov. 14 amid air traffic controller shortages. The FAA plans to ramp up the cuts, starting at 4% of flights on Friday and this weekend. Airlines are scrambling to configure their reduction plans as a major holiday travel season approaches, heightening uncertainty for passengers.

While air traffic controllers have faced long-term shortages, the government shutdown has put increased pressure on the workforce — many of whom are working without pay and have been increasingly calling out of work.

Twenty-two of 572 scheduled Friday flights at BWI — just shy of 4% — have been canceled, according to BWI spokesperson Jonathan Dean.

It was mostly quiet Friday morning at BWI, but foot traffic picked up a bit around midday. A line at one TSA checkpoint filled up, but the wait time maxed out at just 15 minutes.

On Friday afternoon, display boards showed roughly 17% of approaching arrivals were delayed, including roughly 90-minute delays on flights from Pittsburgh and Dulles airport in Virginia.

Reagan National had about 262 delays as of Friday afternoon and 42 flight cancellations, according to tracking website FlightAware, and Dulles International had 58 delays and 21 cancellations.

Southwest Airlines, which handles a large share of flights in and out of BWI, said it reduced flights by 4% across 34 airports. About 120 Southwest flights were canceled on Friday, the airline said. It expects to cancel fewer than 100 flights on Saturday.

A spokesperson for Southwest wrote in an email on Thursday that while “the vast majority of our Customers’ flights will not be disrupted,” all customers booked through Nov. 12 can change their flights at no cost or request refunds.

Dlugonski was frustrated not only by the air travel disruption but also by the ongoing shutdown: Her son is a federal employee about to miss his third paycheck.

“We’re all Americans,” she said, adding that while politicians are locked in a stalemate, the shutdown is having real-world impacts on families. “It needs to end.”

Keep calm and carry on, for now

Other travelers at BWI on Friday were lucky enough to face few obstacles making their flights, although some were on edge as flight reductions are expected to ramp up over the coming week.

“All you can do is control what you can control,” Toby Linder said as he waited for his checked bag to appear on the carousel.

The general TSA line at his home airport in Dallas was up to 42 minutes this morning, he said — luckily, he went through with TSA PreCheck in seven minutes. He arrived extra early this morning in case there were any issues.

He is running a marathon in Saint Michaels on Saturday as he works toward his goal of running one in all 50 states. He didn’t want to miss out on race number 41.

Linder said he’s thought through backup plans in case his flight home Sunday is impacted. But, unfortunately, other nearby airports, like in Philadelphia, are also on the FAA list.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the flight reductions were a precautionary step to maintain safe airspace. Many controllers, who have not received paychecks during the longest shutdown of the federal government, are calling out of work or taking side jobs to make ends meet, Duffy said.

At an event sponsored by Breitbart on Friday, Duffy said that the flight reductions could increase to 15% or 20% by the holidays if air traffic controllers keep calling out of work as the shutdown continues.

Before the shutdown, there were already nationwide controller shortages that caused strain in the workforce.

M.J. Busha, who is visiting Washington for the first time as part of a group of about 40 high school students and chaperones from northern Wisconsin, also had no issues flying Friday morning.

“I’m really excited for a lot of the museums, and it’s cool to be in a bigger city,” Busha said.

There was some disappointment percolating in the group because some of the places they hoped to visit are closed due to the government shutdown. The trip will be a great break from school and work, Busha said, but she’s nervous about their return flight Tuesday.

“I’d really like to be able to go home,” Busha said.