Travel delays were piling up at U.S. airports Friday as the government shutdown dragged on, putting even more pressure on air traffic controllers who have been working without pay for a month.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been warning that travelers will begin to see more flight disruptions the longer controllers go unpaid.
“Every day there will be more challenges,” Duffy told reporters Thursday outside the White House after a closed-door meeting with Vice President JD Vance and aviation industry leaders to discuss the impact of the shutdown on travel to the United States.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday reported a staffing shortage that was causing flight delays at several airports, including those in Boston, Phoenix, San Francisco, Nashville, Houston, Dallas and the Washington, D.C., area. Airports serving the New York City area — John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport — also experienced delays of about two hours on average, according to the FAA.
“Currently, nearly 50 percent of major air traffic control facilities are experiencing staffing shortages, and nearly 90 percent of air traffic controllers are at New York-area facilities,” the FAA said in a statement posted to X late Friday.
Staffing shortages can occur both at regional control centers that manage multiple airports and at individual airport towers, but they do not always lead to flight disruptions. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, flight data showed strong on-time performance at most major U.S. airports during the month of October despite isolated staffing issues that arose throughout the month.
But Cirium said the data also showed a “broader slowdown” on Thursday across the country’s aviation system for the first time since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, suggesting staff-related disruptions may be spreading.
According to Cirium, many major U.S. airports reported below-average on-time performance on Thursday, with fewer flights departing within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure times. Staff-related delays at the Orlando airport on Thursday, for example, averaged nearly four and a half hours for some time. The data does not distinguish between different causes of delays, such as staff shortages or bad weather.
Last weekend, a controller shortage also led the FAA to issue a brief ground stop at Los Angeles International Airport, one of the busiest in the world. Flights were stopped at their home airports for about two hours Sunday until the FAA lifted the ground stop.
Most controllers continue 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 handlers come calling.
Duffy said drivers also have a hard time getting to work because they can’t afford to fill their cars with gas. Drivers lost their first full paychecks on Tuesday.
“For this nation’s air traffic controllers, missing a single paycheck can be a significant hardship, as it is for all American workers. Asking them to go without a full month’s pay or more is simply not sustainable,” Nick Daniels, president of NATCA, said in a statement Friday.
Some U.S. airports have stepped in to provide food donations and other support to federal aviation employees working without pay, including controllers and Transportation Security Administration agents.
Before the shutdown, the FAA was already facing a prolonged shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers.
