U.S. air travel turmoil deepened as nearly 7,000 flights were delayed nationwide on Monday, with air traffic controller absences surging as the federal government shutdown reached its 27th day.
The Federal Aviation Administration cited staffing shortages and imposed ground delay programs affecting Newark Airport in New Jersey, Austin Airport in Texas and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Monday. Flights in the southeast were delayed earlier because of significant staffing shortages at the Atlanta Terminal Radar Approach Control.
Roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must work without pay after a budget impasse between Republican President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats triggered the shutdown.
The Trump administration has warned flight disruptions will increase as controllers miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday.
More than 8,800 flights were delayed on Sunday.
Southwest Airlines had 47%, or 2,089, of its flights delayed on Sunday, while American Airlines had 1,277, or 36%, of its flights delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. United Airlines had 27%, or 807, of its flights delayed and Delta Air Lines had 21%, or 725, of its flights delayed.
On Monday, Southwest had 34% of flights delayed, American 29%, Delta 22% and United Airlines 19% as of 11:30 p.m. ET (0330 GMT), according to FlightAware.
A U.S. Department of Transportation official said 44% of Sunday’s delays stemmed from controller absences – up sharply from the usual 5%.
The mounting delays and cancellations are fueling public frustration and intensifying scrutiny of the shutdown’s impact, raising pressure on lawmakers to resolve it.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was in Cleveland meeting with controllers on Monday, while the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union plans events at numerous airports on Tuesday to highlight the first missed paycheck.
The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels and many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown.
In 2019, during a 35-day shutdown, the number of absences by controllers and TSA officers rose as workers missed paychecks, extending wait times at some airport checkpoints. Authorities were forced to slow air traffic in New York and Washington.
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