Government Shutdown Causes Widespread Flight Delays

The effects of the weeklong government shutdown are making their presence felt on air travel, as flights into airports across the U.S. saw delays Monday night. 

According to a New York Times report, flights at Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR) in New Jersey, Denver International Airport (KDEN), and Hollywood Burbank Airport (KBUR) near Los Angeles all experienced significant delays. Flights at KEWR and KDEN were delayed anywhere from 40 minutes to up to an hour on average. 

Delays at KBUR were more severe after its control tower had no air traffic controllers (ATCs) on duty from around 4:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. PDT due to ongoing staffing issues related to the shutdown.

On average, delays for incoming flights at the California airport were reportedly around two and a half hours. During the period that the tower was unstaffed, operations were transferred to the Southern California TRACON, which is already one of the busiest ATC facilities in the world, per FAA data. 

The delays come just hours after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned of potential delays due to a “slight uptick” in sick calls among ATC staff amid the shutdown. Duffy cited the added pressure of delayed payments adds to the already stressful job of working in an ATC facility.

“They have bills,” Duffy said. “So now they’re thinking about that at the same time that they’re controlling the airspace, which I don’t like that…We want them to leave their personal problems at the door when they go into a tower or into a facility.”

Duffy added that the Essential Air Service (EAS), which subsidizes commercial air travel to small and rural communities in order to keep them connected to the National Airspace System, would run out of funding if a new spending measure was not passed by Sunday. Originally, the program was scheduled to run out of money by Thursday before the DOT was able to find additional funds. 

As a result, Alaska is the state that stands to be the most impacted because of its heavy reliance on the EAS program. 

“Essential Air Service subsidies are expected to expire as soon as Sunday,” a DOT spokesperson said in a statement. “USDOT exhausted every resource in trying to prolong an EAS shortfall, including transferring unrelated funding from the FAA as an advance.”