The is having a large impact on air travel; air traffic controller staffing issues caused by the closed government have led to delays in multiple major airports. In some cases, pilots have been forced to move to alternative workflows.
Because Controllers are essential workers, they must continue to work despite the shutdown, but they are not being paid.
Twelve Federal Aviation Administration facilities faced staffing shortages on Monday evening. Control towers in Burbank, Phoenix and Denver had “staffing triggers” that were reported in the public FAA operations plan. Other towers handling air traffic for airports in Newark, New Jersey, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Indianapolis and Jacksonville, Florida were short-staffed.
Burbank Airport saw the most dramatic impact from the government shutdown as its control tower shut down entirely at 4:15 p.m. on Monday.
Flights were able to take off and land at the airport, but had to operate the same way small airports without control towers do. Delays extending past two and a half hours were reported.
Denver International and Newark Liberty International airports had ground delays as flights were prohibited from taking off until controllers could handle them.
Controllers have increasingly called out sick since the start of the shutdown last week, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a news conference on Monday.
“So now what they think about as they’re controlling our airspace, is, ‘How am I going to pay my mortgage? How do I make my car payment?'” he said. “Do I think they’re more stressed right now in our towers? Yes. Is our airspace unsafe? No.”
Duffy said in the conference that during this shutdown, the government will do what is necessary to keep the airspace safe.
“If we have additional sick calls, we will reduce the flow consistent with a rate that’s safe for the American people,” he said, which foreshadowed delays seen later in the day.
The previous 35-day government shutdown from December 2018 to January 2019 ended when air traffic was swamped after ten controllers stayed home. On the same day, TSA agents called out sick, causing backups at airport security points.
As tight as staffing is for controllers currently, any strikes or staff members taking time off could be detrimental to air travel and safety.
“If someone has to take sick leave to drive Uber to make the difference, those are decisions they’re going to make themselves,” Duffy said, calling for an end to the shutdown.
Duffy has vocally blamed the government’s shutdown on congressional Democrats. “I don’t want them finding a second job to pay them, a job to pay the bills. I want them to get paid for the work they’re doing today, keeping our planes in the air.”
At Burbank Airport on Monday, a pilot radioed the control tower before takeoff received a message that its Controllers had gone home.
“Clearence is closed, ground is closed, local is closed. The tower is closed due to staffing, please contact SoCal on the 800 (phone) number,” a voice said in audio recorded by LiveATC.net.
Smaller airports may lose government flight subsidies for flights to smaller cities. The Essential Air Service, the service providing funding for airlines to fly to small cities that would not have access to air service, will expire on Sunday, according to the Department of Transportation on Monday.
“The number one user of this air space is Alaska,” Duffy said. “You don’t have roads in Alaska. They travel by air, and a lot of these are small communities. Alaska will be impacted, but every state across the country will be impacted by the inability to provide the subsidies to airlines to service these communities.”