Isolated flight delays may spread as air traffic controllers go without pay during shutdown

Air traffic controllers missed their paychecks Tuesday because of the ongoing cabinet shutdown and that has Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the head of the controllers union concerned that flight delays could multiply as increasingly stressed-out controllers call out sick Up-to-date absences have led to a number of isolated delays around the country because the Federal Aviation Administration was already extremely short on controllers prior to the shutdown The FAA restricts the number of flights landing and taking off at an airport anytime there is a shortage of controllers to ensure safety There s no way to predict when or where delays might happen because even a small number of absences can disrupt operations at times Sometimes the delays are only minutes but chosen airports have released delays more than two hours long and several have even had to stop all flights temporarily So far the bulk of the delays have been isolated and temporary Aviation analytics firm Cirium commented that normally about of all flights are delayed more than minutes for a variety of reasons The records Cirium tracks shows there has not been a dramatic increase in the total number of delays overall since the shutdown began on Oct Nearly of the flights at a sample of major airports nationwide have still been on time this month Though a two-hour-long staffing-related ground stop at Los Angeles International Airport made national news on Sunday a major thunderstorm in Dallas that day had a bigger impact on flights when only about of flights were on time Cirium disclosed of the flights out of LAX were still on time Sunday But Duffy and the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association Nick Daniels have continued to emphasize the pressure that controllers are feeling They say the problems are likely to only get worse the longer the shutdown continues Air traffic controllers have to have of focus of the time Daniels declared Tuesday at a news conference alongside Duffy at LaGuardia Airport in New York And I m watching air traffic controllers going to work I m getting the stories They re worried about paying for medicine for their daughter I got a message from a controller that announced I m running out of money And if she doesn t get the medicine she requirements she dies That s the end Controllers gathered outside airports nationwide Tuesday to hand out leaflets urging an end to the shutdown as soon as feasible Worrying about how to pay their bills is driving selected to take second jobs to make ends meet The number of controllers calling in sick has increased during the shutdown both because of their frustration with the situation and because controllers need the time off to work second jobs instead of continuing to work six days a week like plenty of of them routinely do Duffy has noted that controllers could be fired if they abuse their sick time but the vast majority of them have continued to show up for work every day Air traffic controller Joe Segretto who works at a regional radar facility that directs planes in and out of airports in the New York area stated morale is suffering as controllers worry more about money The pressure is real Segretto announced We have people trying to keep these airplanes safe We have trainees that are trying to learn a new job that is very fast-paced very stressful very complex now having to worry about how they re going to pay bills Duffy stated the shutdown is also making it harder for the establishment to reduce the longstanding shortage of about controllers He commented that a few students have dropped out of the air traffic controller academy in Oklahoma City and younger controllers who are still training to do the job might abandon the career because they can t afford to go without pay This shutdown is making it harder for me to accomplish those goals Duffy announced The longer the shutdown continues pressure will continue to build on Congress to reach an agreement to reopen the regime During the -day shutdown in President Donald Trump s first term the disruptions to flights across the country contributed to the end of that disruption But so far Democrats and Republicans have shown little sign of reaching a deal to fund the governing body