The ongoing government shutdown is having major impacts for air travelers in and out of Southern California.
Monday night, there were no air traffic controllers working at the Hollywood Burbank Airport due to staffing shortages, which led to widespread delays and cancellations.
However, on Tuesday, air traffic controllers were scheduled to return to work and full staffing of the control tower at Hollywood Burbank Airport. Flight operations were expected to return to normal with flights starting at 7 a.m., according to the operations employee on duty.
Early Tuesday morning, all of the flights leaving Burbank were on time and all of the flights coming into the San Fernando Valley airport were on time. Delays were reported later Monday, but those were due to weather conditions with widespread morning fog.
From 4:15 p.m. to 10 p.m., the FAA said there were no air traffic controllers in Burbank. The shortages were expected due to sick calls, last-minute day-off requests and staffing issues, air traffic controllers at the airport told NBCLA.
The airport has a system in place to hand off air traffic control duties to another agency in the event of a shortage, they said. Southern California TRACON (SCT) serves most airports in Southern California, one of the busiest air spaces in the country. The agency’s air space includes an area from about 20 miles north of Burbank to the U.S.-Mexico border and from the San Bernardino area west to Santa Catalina Island.
The FAA said departures to Burbank were delayed an average of 151 minutes.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the airport was expected to remain without controllers until about 10 p.m., but officials were working to bring in staff as soon as possible. It is unclear if controllers were actually back in the tower Monday night.
According to the FAA’s website, several measures were put in place, including ground delays at airports in other cities.
Earlier in the day, airport spokesman Mike Christensen told City News Service that “operations and flights were running normally,” but referred further questions to the FAA once the staffing shortage took effect.
“As Secretary (Sean) Duffy said, there have been increased staffing shortages across the system. When that happens, the FAA slows traffic into some airports to ensure safe operations,” according to the FAA.
Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed the situation on the shutdown, posting on X, “Thanks, @realDonaldTrump! Burbank Airport has ZERO air traffic controllers from 4:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. today because of YOUR government shutdown.”
The government shutdown entered its sixth day Monday as Democrats and Republicans remained at odds over a funding plan. Both a GOP-backed stopgap measure and a Democratic alternative failed to advance in the Senate.
The last federal shutdown lasted 35 days in 2018-19 during President Donald Trump’s first term in office.
The FAA advised passengers to check https://fly.faa.gov for real-time flight impacts.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said that it is normal for a few controllers to call in sick on any given day and said what happened Monday night is the latest example of how national staffing shortages are a real problem.
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