US airports report over 20 air traffic controller shortage triggers in one day | US news
More than 20 incidents of air traffic controller shortages were reported at US airports on Saturday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, in the latest sign of the impact of the government shutdown.
The agency ordered a ground stop at Los Angeles international airport around 11:30 a.m. ET (15:30 GMT) due to air traffic controller staffing shortages. Restriction closed Delays are likely when flights resume to and from most of the Southern California area.
As of noon ET Sunday, the agency noted shortages of air traffic controllers at six U.S. airports.
The Trump administration has warned that flight disruptions are expected to increase as the shutdown drags on.
duffy said Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures program noted that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had 22 “triggers” indicating a shortage of air traffic controllers on Saturday. That figure is “one of the highest we’ve seen in the system” since Oct. 1, he said.
“This is a sign that the controllers are weakened,” Duffy said.
Accordingly FlightAwareThere were more than 5,300 flight delays in the U.S. on Saturday and more than 2,500 flight delays by 12 a.m. ET on Sunday, according to a flight tracking site. Since the shutdown began, delays have generally been above average.
According to the FAA, air traffic control staffing issues were reported for flights to Chicago and Newark on Sunday.
Due to the federal government shutdown, about 13,000 air traffic controllers and about 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers will have to work without pay during the shutdown, as Republicans and Democrats remain deadlocked on passing the federal budget.
“This shutdown has real consequences for these hard-working American patriots,” said Nick Daniels, President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). expression last week. “With each passing day, controllers are becoming more distracted by the risk of receiving a zero-dollar salary on October 28, despite working 40 hours a week and in many cases forced overtime due to controller staffing shortages.”
Air traffic controllers received a paycheck worth about 90 percent of their regular salary two weeks ago, but on Tuesday they will mark their first fully unpaid pay period for the job in October.
Duffy noted that air traffic controllers are taking second jobs to make up for lost income.
“They’re taking second jobs, they’re out there looking,” he said.
Approximately 3,500 air traffic controllers at the FAA did not reach target staffing levels; many of these controllers were required to work mandatory overtime and work for weeks, six days before the shutdown began.
The closure also caused employees training at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma to be sent home on October 3.
“It can take three to five years to fully train a technician,” said Dave Spero, president of the AFL-CIO (Pass) Professional Aviation Safety Professionals, which represents 11,000 employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Department of Defense. “Any disruption in education could push back the clock, as happened during the academy shutdown during the pandemic.”
“With each day that the government is shut down and employees in the aviation ecosystem are still furloughed, another layer of security can be eliminated,” Spero added. “Furloughed employees want to return to their jobs, all employees must be paid, and they want to begin actively contributing to the modernization of the air traffic control system. We urge Congress to open the government as soon as possible.”
In 2019, due to absenteeism of controllers and TSA officers during a 35-day shutdown augmented Throughout the closure, this has resulted in longer wait times at some airport checkpoints and forced authorities to slow air traffic in New York and Washington, D.C.
