Air traffic controllers are opting to call out sick rather than work for no pay. It's an action that has ended shutdowns before
Joe Raedle/Getty
The impacts of the government shutdown are starting to spread as it enters its second week. And while neither Republicans and Democrats are showing a willingness to budge from their respective positions, it could be headaches at the airport that bring them together in the near future. After all, it's happened before.
Flight delays and cancellations are beginning to increase as air traffic control workers, who are considered essential employees, call in sick rather than work without pay. That's resulting in staff shortages, meaning airports can't handle the usual number of flights.
Some 70 flights were canceled within, into or out of the U.S. on Tuesday and another 3,759 delayed, according to FlightAware. Flights in and out of Nashville were operating with an average two-hour delay Tuesday evening. Dallas and Chicago also saw staffing-shortage driven delays.
As of 10 a.m. ET, 26 flights had already been canceled on Wednesday and 861 delayed.
There was a shortage of air traffic control workers even before the shutdown. Within hours of it beginning last week, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) urged government officials to resolve the problem quickly.
“When the federal government shuts down it introduces unnecessary distractions and our entire aviation system is weakened,” said NATCA President Nick Daniels in a statement. "Congress must restore federal funding so that the safety and efficiency of our National Airspace System is not compromised.”
The aviation system is especially sensitive to many kinds of disruption. A weather delay in one part of the country can throw flights nationwide into chaos. Disturbances in air traffic control are perhaps even more disruptive.
Air traffic controllers were a big part of the reason the last government shutdown ended in 2019. On January 25 of that year, the 35th day of the shutdown, 10 air traffic controllers — six from northern Virginia and four from Florida — stayed home. That small work stoppage was enough to cause delays at several hubs and shut down travel temporarily at La Guardia airport in New York.
The shutdown ended later that day.
The work stoppage by that small group of controllers came on the day that marked the second full missed paycheck. (Federal employees are generally paid every two weeks, with the next scheduled pay date for military service members and civilian contractors set for Oct. 15.)
We're still a way from that particular milestone, but the memory of the 2018-2019 shutdown is fresh in the minds of many government workers. And President Donald Trump's threats that not all workers will receive back pay risks exacerbating the situation.
NATCA notes that many air traffic controllers will have to work 10-hour days six days a week with the shutdown — and many have historically been forced to take second jobs on top of that to pay their bills. The shutdown will also stop work on safety and operational support and a much-needed modernization of the air traffic control system, which was underway.
That said, the organization has formally discouraged any sort of organized work stoppage among members "Air traffic controllers and other aviation safety professionals take their responsibility to protect the safety of the flying public very seriously," it wrote. "Participating in a job action could result in removal from federal service. It is not only illegal, but it also undermines NATCA’s credibility and severely weakens our ability to effectively advocate for you and your families."
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