{"id":346766,"date":"2025-11-01T00:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T00:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/346766\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T00:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T00:33:14","slug":"air-traffic-controller-shortages-lead-to-broader-us-flight-delays-as-shutdown-nears-one-month-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/346766\/","title":{"rendered":"Air traffic controller shortages lead to broader US flight delays as shutdown nears one-month mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travel delays were adding up at airports across the U.S. on Friday as the government shutdown drags on, putting even more pressure on air traffic controllers who have been working without pay for a month.<\/p>\n

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy<\/a> has been warning that travelers will start to see more flight disruptions the longer controllers go without a paycheck.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day there\u2019s going to be more challenges,\u201d Duffy told reporters Thursday outside the White House after a closed-door meeting with Vice President JD Vance and aviation industry leaders to talk about the shutdown\u2019s impact on U.S. travel.<\/p>\n

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday reported staffing shortages<\/a> that were causing flight delays at a number of airports, including in Boston, Phoenix, San Francisco, Nashville, Houston, Dallas and the Washington, D.C. area. Airports serving the New York City area \u2014 John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport \u2014 were also experiencing delays averaging around two hours, according to the FAA.<\/p>\n

Staffing shortages can occur both in regional control centers that manage multiple airports and in individual airport towers, but they don\u2019t always lead to flight disruptions. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, flight data showed strong on-time performance at most major U.S. airports for the month of October despite isolated staffing problems that surfaced throughout the month.<\/p>\n

But Cirium said the data also showed a \u201cbroader slowdown\u201d Thursday across the nation\u2019s aviation system for the first time since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, suggesting staffing-related disruptions may be spreading.<\/p>\n

According to Cirium, many major U.S. airports on Thursday saw below-average on-time performance, with fewer flights departing within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure times. Staffing-related delays at Orlando\u2019s airport on Thursday, for example, averaged nearly four and a half hours for some time. The data does not distinguish between the different causes of delays, such as staffing shortages or bad weather.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, a shortage of controllers also led to the FAA issuing a brief ground stop at Los Angeles International Airport, one of the busiest in the world. Flights were held at their originating airports for about two hours Sunday until the FAA lifted the ground stop.<\/p>\n

Most controllers are continuing to work mandatory overtime six days a week during the shutdown, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said. That leaves little time for a side job to help cover bills, mortgage payments and other expenses unless controllers call out.<\/p>\n

Duffy said controllers are also struggling to get to work because they can\u2019t afford to fill up their cars with gas. Controllers missed their first full paychecks on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this nation\u2019s air traffic controllers, missing just one paycheck can be a significant hardship, as it is for all working Americans. Asking them to go without a full month\u2019s pay or more is simply not sustainable,\u201d Nick Daniels, president of NATCA, said Friday in a statement.<\/p>\n

Some U.S. airports have stepped in to provide food donations and other support<\/a> for federal aviation employees working without pay, including controllers and Transportation Security Administration agents.<\/p>\n

Before the shutdown, the FAA was already dealing with a long-standing shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travel delays were adding up at airports across the U.S. on Friday as the government shutdown drags on,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":346767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[166,12167,2731,64,276,1596,12104,6064,723,57,49089,4345,2066,2987,170266,401,50,139443,80,16567,121682,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-346766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-aerospace-and-defense-industry","10":"tag-aviation-safety","11":"tag-boston","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-dallas","15":"tag-federal-aviation-administration","16":"tag-fl-state-wire","17":"tag-florida","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-government-shutdown","20":"tag-houston","21":"tag-jd-vance","22":"tag-nashville","23":"tag-national-air-traffic-controllers-association","24":"tag-new-jersey","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-nick-daniels","27":"tag-politics","28":"tag-sean-duffy","29":"tag-u-s-government-shutdown","30":"tag-u-s-news","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115471634738883692","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}