Staffing shortages mire air travel as shutdown stretches on
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Travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in Newark, New Jersey, on Oct. 6. Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Staffing shortages at major airports across the country has snarled air travel Sunday after air traffic controllers missed their first paychecks during the ongoing government shutdown.
The big picture: On Friday, the FAA said that nearly 80% of controllers were absent from New York-area facilities and that half of the busiest facilities faced shortages. And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Sunday that if the shutdown stretches on, it's only going to get worse.
- The government has been shut down for a month and is just a few days off from becoming the longest in U.S. history.
Driving the news: Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was placed under a ground stop for flights coming from the Dallas-Fort Worth airspace due to staffing shortages, according to another advisory. Delays there have averaged 65 minutes.
- The staffing crisis escalated Sunday, moving beyond airport towers to the FAA's high-altitude centers that manage airspace between cities.
- Jacksonville's center, which controls airspace across the Southeast, declared an active "staffing trigger," according to the FAA's national operations plan, forcing possible rerouting for Atlanta, Orlando and Miami.
Zoom out: Ground delay programs were in place for multiple U.S. airports due to staffing issues as of early Sunday afternoon.
- Arrivals at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport are being limited to as few as 20 planes per hour, per the FAA and New York City Emergency Management. The average delay for arriving flights was over 3 and a half hours.
- The traffic management program at Newark will run into early Monday morning, per the FAA.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy tweeted to warn Newark travelers to "expect significant delays. We HAVE to reduce flight volumes to MAINTAIN SAFETY." Duffy also blamed Democrats, including New York's Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, for the shutdown, saying that airspace would return to normal once a deal is made.
- Staffing-related ground stops and delay programs were also issued for Nashville and San Francisco, though they were canceled by early afternoon as the system struggled to adapt.
State of play: As of 2:15pm ET, Sunday has seen 2,756 delays within, into or out of the U.S. and 222 cancellations, according to tracker FlightAware.
- On Friday, there were over 6,200 delays and 493 cancellations. That same day, the air traffic controllers' union president called for Congress to pass a clean continuing resolution to end the shutdown.
What they're saying: "If the government doesn't open in the next week or two, we'll look back as these were the good days, not the bad days," Duffy said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday.
Flashback: During the last government shutdown, workers at the nation's airports increasingly missed work under the strain of missed paychecks.
- In response, the FAA had to limit flights to some major airports.
Go deeper: Air traffic control shortages delay flights at major airports amid shutdown
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional information throughout.
