The government shutdown is now officially one week old, and it is already causing disruptions to air traffic.
Nashville Airport and the Chicago O’Hare Airport both faced major delays on Tuesday due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.
Air traffic controllers are the backbone of safe air travel. However, they are also tired and overworked due to a shortage that has been ongoing for years and is about to worsen significantly due to the government shutdown.
In the event of a government shutdown, thousands of personnel across the federal government are furloughed. Air traffic controllers are considered essential to the protection of life and property, so they are required to get back to work, albeit without pay or additional support staff.
The workers will get a reduced paycheck this Friday, and if the shutdown continues, their next scheduled payment will not come. 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 situation has historically led many air traffic controllers to call in sick in the event of a shutdown. That was the case during the last government shutdown from December 2018 to January 2019, too. It eventually forced Washington to end the shutdown when the absence of ten air traffic controllers completely grounded flights at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and caused widespread flight disruptions nationwide.
Is a similar fate playing out this time around? We will have to wait and see. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told a press conference on Monday that staffing levels at some facilities had been cut in half since the shutdown started. Meanwhile, staffing shortage-induced delays are already happening.
There were a total of 3,778 delays within, into, or out of the U.S. on Tuesday, and 6,514 on Monday.
Nashville International Airport’s air traffic control tower was operating at limited capacity on Tuesday, which caused a ground delay for several hours as flights were reduced. The few flights that were allowed in had to contact a control center in nearby Memphis.
According to an FAA advisory from Tuesday evening, there were also staffing shortages in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, and Dallas.
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