Editor’s note: The video in the player above is from a previous report on delayed and canceled flights caused by the government shutdown.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Tuesday the United States might be forced to close some airspace if air traffic controllers miss a second full paycheck next week and the government shutdown continues.
Duffy, who blamed the shutdown on Democrats at a news conference, explained many controllers said they can afford to miss one paycheck – but “none” can manage missing two.
“So if you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos,” he said. “You will see mass flight delays. You’ll see mass cancelations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace because we just cannot manage it because we don’t have the air traffic controllers.”
The secretary maintained the nation’s airspace remains safe, but the shutdown has injected more risk into the system.
“What also concerns me, people always ask me, is the system safe? And I would tell you, yes, the system is safe and if it wasn’t, we would shut it down,” the secretary said. “We delay flights, we cancel or tell airlines to cancel flights if we don’t have enough controllers to effectively and safely manage our skies.”
Flight delays and cancellations have risen significantly at airports nationwide, including in Chicago, since the shutdown began more than a month ago.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said flight data showed strong on-time performance at most major U.S. airports for the month of October, but on Thursday, a “broader slowdown” was reported as many major airports saw below-average on-time performance.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a post on X Friday evening that nearly 50% of major air traffic control facilities were experiencing staffing shortages, and nearly 90% of air traffic controllers were out at New York–area facilities.
Last week, Duffy warned travelers will start to see more flight disruptions the longer controllers go without a paycheck.
Most controllers are continuing to work mandatory overtime six days a week during the shutdown, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said. Before the shutdown, the FAA was already dealing with a long-standing shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers.
Want more insights? Join Working Title - our career elevating newsletter and get the future of work delivered weekly.
