Air traffic controllers are overworked and traumatized. Now with a government shutdown, it’s about to get worse for the people who are in charge of making sure air travel is safe and efficient.
The government shutdown started on Wednesday and is continuing into Thursday, with the Senate out of session for Yom Kippur.
Thousands at the FAA are getting furloughed, but none will be air traffic controllers. Field training and hiring for more controllers won’t be interrupted as well, according to the latest Department of Transportation shutdown contingency plan. But air traffic controllers will still be facing difficulties.
Personnel who are deemed essential are required to get back to work during a shutdown under the “protection of life and property” exception, even if it is without pay. More than 13,000 air traffic controllers employed by the DOT fall into that category.
The controllers are currently already working mandatory overtime, clocking in for 10 hours a day, six days a week, according to the labor union National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).
“The increased stress and fatigue that comes from working long hours without pay cannot be overstated,” NATCA President Nick Daniels said in a press statement on Wednesday.
The air traffic controllers are also required to work without the help of support staff. More than 2,350 aviation safety professionals represented by NATCA have been furloughed due to the shutdown.
“Government shutdowns reduce the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System (NAS) and erode the layers of safety that allow the flying public to arrive safely and on time to their destinations,” NATCA shared in the press statement. “During a shutdown, critical safety support staff are furloughed, and support programs are suspended, making it difficult for air traffic controllers and other aviation safety professionals to perform at optimum levels.”
An Aviation Funding Stability Act was introduced last month by Democratic representatives Steve Cohen of Tennessee and André Carson of Indiana that would keep essential FAA employees, including air traffic controllers, paid for 30 days in the event of a government shutdown. It’s not yet been voted on.
Once the shutdown is eventually over, the workers will get paid for their time, and they have not missed a paycheck yet. The air traffic controllers get paid biweekly, ENO Center for Transportation senior fellow Jeff Davis told Gizmodo, and the next payday will be the following week on Friday, October 10. If the shutdown ends by then, the issue is resolved. But the problem is that there is currently no clear end in sight for the shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Thursday that a weekend vote is “unlikely,” meaning that the shutdown could very well last into next week if there is no agreement tomorrow. Democrats are requesting that healthcare provisions, like the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies, be included in an appropriations bill. If Republicans stand firm against it, the shutdown will continue.
The last government shutdown was during Trump’s first administration, and it lasted 35 days. What ended up forcing Trump to cave on his funding bill demands was when ten air traffic controllers called in sick in Virginia and Florida, which completely grounded all flights at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and caused disruptions across other major airports around the country.
Staffing shortages and work traumas
The shutdown and its implications come as the U.S. is contending with a persistent air traffic controller shortage that has led to numerous flight delays.
Daniels told CNBC earlier this year that air traffic controller staffing was at “an all-time low” and that “any hiccup, a government shutdown or anything that disrupts the pipeline of the air traffic controllers coming in, will absolutely hurt the capacity of the flying public, and how many planes we can put in the air at any given time safely.”
A shortage has been the case for years, but it’s been brought further into the spotlight lately due to a string of terrifying accidents.
An American Airlines flight collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., earlier this year, killing 67 people. A couple of months after that, Newark Airport experienced a terrifying outage that saw air traffic controllers lose all communications with planes flying in and out of the airport for about 90 seconds.
The incidents did not stem from any air traffic controllers. But they did lead to increased scrutiny of the air travel industry, and have put both air traffic safety workers and travelers on edge.