When Will Government Step Up and Deal With the Furlough Delays?

Frustration is building as passengers continue to face massive-airport delays due to the federal spending cuts, which is resulting in the furlough of about 1,500 controllers a day.

This, combined with the inclement weather and airport construction has caused 273 cancellations and 4,749 delayed flights by late in the day, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks U.S. flights.

The question that the public and the airlines now have--what more needs to happen before before politicians on the ground in Washington do something?

With New York's three main airports-LaGuardia, JFK and Newark's Liberty, along with airports in Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth, Las Vegas and Washington reporting sporadic delays all day Tuesday, two U.S. senators, a Republican and a Democrat, urged postponing the furloughs Tuesday, something the nation's airlines sued to do on Friday.

The problem, according to USA Today, "is that the stalemate between the Obama administration, which insists the furloughs are the only way to cover the cuts, and congressional Republicans, who argue that there must be other ways to achieve savings, continues."

USA Today further states that this issues is "creating havoc for fliers like Lisa Hagendorf who say their travel plans have been disrupted. Hagendorf's Delta Air Lines flight from Chicago's O'Hare to New York's JFK was delayed twice on Monday before ultimately being canceled. The airline, she says, cited 'weather problems,' but as far as she could tell, the skies were clear in Chicago."

The news with the furloughs is just too coincidental," she said. "Because of the furlough, my same-day trip to Chicago became an unexpected 'overnightmare.'"

Charles Moynihan, an ESPN producer and photographer, who was scheduled to fly from Phoenix to Newark on an 11:36 a.m. United Airlines flight on Tuesday had his light delayed until 2:40 p.m. and had this to state:

"This is unacceptable," he said. "Mother Nature is 'unpredictable.' Airlines are at her mercy. To me, the furloughs were a 'predictable' known and should have been spread out over a longer period of time to lessen passenger angst," according to USA Today.