(WASHINGTON, D.C.) With the U.S. government shutdown now stretching past the one-month mark, severe staffing gaps among air traffic controllers are triggering widespread flight delays at major airports across the country, federal officials and union leaders said Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration said nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers have worked without pay for weeks, while nearly 50% of major air traffic control facilities are facing staffing shortages. The strain is most acute in the New York area, where the FAA reported nearly 90% of controllers are out at local facilities, driving two-hour delays at John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark. Orlando International at times has seen delays averaging nearly 4.5 hours, according to FAA status updates shared with industry partners.
FAA response and safety policy
The FAA said the agency will reduce the flow of air traffic to maintain safety whenever staffing drops too low. That policy helps prevent errors but also slows departures and arrivals. Officials say this approach is the only safe path while the shutdown—now at 31 days and counting since it began on October 1—continues to drain the workforce and stretch remaining controllers thin.
“After 31 days without pay, air traffic controllers are under immense stress and fatigue. The shutdown must end so that these controllers receive the pay they’ve earned and travelers can avoid further disruptions and delays,” the agency said in a statement.
The FAA’s public air traffic status tool provides real-time delay information for travelers and airlines, and officials urged people to check the FAA’s air traffic status page before heading to the airport.
Meetings and warnings from transportation leaders
Pressure mounted at the White House, where U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy met with Vice President JD Vance and airline executives to assess growing operational risks. Duffy warned reporters that the longer the shutdown endures, the more likely normal schedules are to buckle.
“Every day there’s going to be more challenges… We work overtime to make sure the system is safe. And we will slow traffic down, you’ll see delays, we’ll have flights canceled to make sure the system is safe,” he said.
Officials emphasized that safety decisions will continue to drive how the FAA meters traffic.
Union perspective and worker impacts
Union leaders painted a stark picture of families coping with missed paychecks and long shifts.
- Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), which represents about 20,000 members, urged Congress to break the stalemate.
- “Whatever the means are, whatever the way that they get it done, that’s what the American people deserve, that’s what the flying public deserves and especially our air traffic controllers,” he said.
- Controllers are being assigned mandatory overtime six days a week, leaving little room for rest or second jobs.
- Some controllers have called out to seek other ways to cover rent, childcare, and medical bills, further straining schedules in already short-staffed facilities.
Families describe difficult budgeting choices and the stress of extended shifts. “You can see the fatigue in their faces,” said one spouse waiting at baggage claim in Miami, noting her partner has been called in for sixth-day overtime three weeks in a row.
Nationwide ripple effects and affected airports
The bottlenecks are rippling far beyond New York and Orlando. FAA briefings to industry stakeholders highlighted delays at:
- Boston
- Phoenix
- San Francisco
- Nashville
- Houston
- Dallas
- Washington, D.C.
- Los Angeles (LAX)
- Miami
- Philadelphia
- Jacksonville
- Austin
- Chicago O’Hare
At several airports, three-hour security lines compounded traveler frustration for those who arrived early only to find rolling ground stops and extended taxi times. Airline dispatchers are building longer buffers into flight plans to anticipate airspace metering, and crews report late-night duty periods stretching due to a cascade of upstream delays.
How delays propagate across networks
According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, the dual hit of fewer available controllers and the compounding effects of staggered ground delays is pushing some hub-and-spoke routes to a near-breaking point during peak hours.
- When a major node like New York or Orlando slows, the effect can slide across a carrier’s entire schedule.
- That raises the odds of missed connections and aircraft out of position.
- Travelers should brace for rolling slowdowns as long as facilities remain understaffed and unpaid professionals carry the load.
The FAA said half of the nation’s “Core 30” airports—the largest and most operationally complex—are reporting controller shortages. Local unions in New York say 80% of controllers are absent at times due to financial strain, family obligations, and fatigue.
Operational examples and cascading effects
- At Washington-area airports, pilots reported longer hold times after pushback as controllers slowed departure rates to match available staffing.
- In Houston and Dallas, weather that would normally cause modest slowdowns produced more severe gridlock because there were fewer people available to adjust traffic patterns on the fly.
- In San Francisco and Los Angeles, routine runway configurations took longer to change because control rooms were stretched thin, leading to brief ground stops that cascaded into later delays.
Travelers catching early-morning flights are not spared. When overnight staff is light and planes and crews arrive late from the prior evening, the first wave can start behind schedule, feeding into the day’s delays.
Airline responses and limits of support
Airlines have begun small-scale support for unpaid federal workers who are keeping the system running.
- United Airlines delivered meals to federal employees, including air traffic controllers, at select airports as a show of solidarity.
However, airline operations leaders privately say goodwill gestures cannot offset the math of thin staffing and the FAA’s safety-first throttling of departures and arrivals.
“There’s no shortcut here,” one operations manager said, describing how a single short-staffed control room can slow traffic across multiple states.
Airline customer care teams said they are waiving some change fees and rebooking travelers where possible, but those measures have limited reach when seats are already full.
Advice for travelers and outlook
Officials advise passengers to:
- Check itineraries repeatedly on the day of travel
- Plan for multi-hour delays where shortages are worst
- Consult the FAA’s air traffic status page for live updates on airport conditions and ground delay programs
Airlines say the faster the shutdown ends, the faster crews, aircraft, and routes can return to normal alignment. Until then, the FAA’s strategy is clear: slow the system to keep it safe.
The unanswered question
The critical question remains how long that safety valve can hold without deeper service cuts. As the shutdown drags on:
- More controllers may call out
- Training pipelines—already thin—cannot easily backfill the gap
- Delays and disruptions may broaden and deepen
For now, the nation’s air traffic controllers remain on the job without pay, the government shutdown presses on, and flight delays keep spreading from one airport to the next.
This Article in a Nutshell
After 31 days of the government shutdown, nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers have worked without pay, and nearly half of major facilities report shortages. The FAA is intentionally reducing traffic flow to preserve safety, producing delays—sometimes hours long—at major hubs including New York and Orlando. Union leaders report mandatory overtime and financial strain on controllers and families. Airlines provide limited assistance but cannot replace staffing shortfalls. Travelers should monitor the FAA air traffic status page; officials warn disruptions will continue until the shutdown ends.
