Airlines Feed Air Traffic Controllers as Pay Halts Amid Shutdown

(CHICAGO O’HARE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (ORD)) Airlines are stepping in to feed air traffic controllers as the government shutdown drags into a fourth week, leaving critical aviation workers without paychecks and scrambling to cover rent, utilities and child care while keeping the nation’s busiest skies moving. United, Delta and JetBlue confirmed they are providing free meals at major airport hubs nationwide, saying the support is aimed at controllers and other federal employees who have been working without pay since the lapse in federal funding. The shutdown has lasted 29 days as of October 29, 2025, with no resolution in sight.

United Airlines said it is donating meals for air traffic controllers and other federal workers at its hubs coast to coast, including Chicago O’Hare, Denver International, Houston/George Bush Intercontinental, Los Angeles International, Newark Liberty, San Francisco International and Washington Dulles. Delta Air Lines and JetBlue said they are also offering meals at their airport locations, as controllers walk into break rooms to find brown-bag lunches and hot trays delivered directly to towers and radar rooms. For workers, the free meals can mean one less bill to worry about during a time when pay stubs arrive showing $0.

The strain is showing on the job. About 2,800 flights were delayed in the U.S. on October 27, 2025, as controller shortages fed into cascading slowdowns. The U.S. airspace system normally handles 35,000 flights daily and supports 10 million aviation-related jobs, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. With the shutdown entering its fifth week, controllers say they are working up to six days a week, 10 hours a day, under rosters that were tight even before colleagues were furloughed or called out from stress and fatigue. Roughly 2,350 aviation safety professionals represented by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), including engineers, have been sidelined during the funding lapse, thinning the backline support that keeps complex equipment and procedures running.

At a news conference at LaGuardia Airport on October 28, 2025, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged the toll on new hires who have not built financial cushions.

“Many of our controllers can make it without this first paycheck. They’ve been in the job for, you know, 10, 15, 20 years. They plan for days like this. But we have a lot of new controllers who are still in training that aren’t at a high level in income and they can’t handle what’s happening to them today.”

His comments echoed what union leaders have been warning for days: that an unpaid, distracted controller workforce creates risk for the public.

NATCA President Nick Daniels said the safety margin is under pressure as controllers debate how to pick up extra shifts after work.

“We are the rope in this tug-of-war game, and that is what we’re trying to raise awareness about. As the pressure mounts, as the stress continues, our air traffic controllers are thinking about how to have a side job instead of about safety, instead of about the American flying public. We’re going to have to slow it down, as these people cannot focus on their jobs. That makes it less safe.”

The union organized demonstrations at 20 airports around the country, where controllers and their families stood in terminals urging travelers to call their representatives and demand an end to the shutdown.

On the ground in Denver, the personal cost is stark. A controller with 10 years’ experience told FOX31 he had just been paid nothing for a heavy work week.

“My first paycheck this morning was $0, and I’ve worked 60 hours. Last mortgage payments, credit card bills, light bills—that doesn’t wait.”

Another Denver-area controller spent the day talking with passengers, asking them to reach out to lawmakers to break the impasse. Many say they are weighing side gigs such as Uber or DoorDash to pay for gas and medication, even as they report to work at the tower for long stretches without overtime pay.

Mark Rausch, NATCA Region 10 vice president, described the calculations families are making as savings run down and bills keep coming.

“We have to figure out what we’re going to do with what little money we may have left in savings, or how we’re going to figure out, are we going to get more money coming in? Are we going to start driving Uber? Are we going to start doing maybe DoorDash? Figure some other kind of way to generate income, while still going to our jobs in air traffic control facilities and doing the work in aviation safety professions across the country without getting paid.”

Union officials say the choices are stark across the system: work unpaid shifts moving planes, or stay home and leave even fewer controllers in place.

Airlines say they cannot solve the pay issue, but they can ease daily pressures. At United’s hubs, local teams coordinated deliveries to towers and radar rooms so controllers could grab sandwiches and hot meals between sessions. Delta and JetBlue described similar efforts, with station staff volunteering to run food up secure elevators and across ramps to crews who cannot leave their posts. In Denver, one controller said colleagues planned to pick up donated meals the next day, a small buffer against the reality of continuing with $0 pay through another week of mandatory shifts. The free meals are a lifeline and a symbol of how deeply the shutdown has reached into frontline operations.

The FAA’s sprawling network is designed to keep busy airports like O’Hare, Newark and Los Angeles humming in all weather, backed by layers of redundancy and strict procedures. In normal times, that means controllers rotate between radar screens and tower cab positions, rest in designated quiet rooms, and rely on technicians and engineers to fix equipment and update systems before problems become critical. With roughly 2,350 NATCA-represented engineers and other safety professionals furloughed, controllers say they feel the absence in ways big and small—from slower responses when a radar display flickers to delays in routine checks of backup radios and navigational aids. The work is still getting done, but it takes longer, and it leaves fewer people to absorb unexpected spikes in traffic.

Union leaders say the most immediate effect is the need to “slow it down,” as Daniels put it, spacing aircraft farther apart and holding departures to match the reduced capacity that a stretched workforce can safely handle. That in turn pushes delays across the network, which was already fragile from weather disruptions in the fall. The October 27, 2025 wave of about 2,800 delays underscored how quickly bottlenecks spread when staffing is thin. At the same time, controllers are facing intense personal stress, shuffling unpaid hours, child care and second jobs during a government shutdown whose end date is unknown.

The politics on Capitol Hill have grown more complicated as the fight drags on. The Senate has failed 13 times to pass a bill to fund government operations through November 21, 2025, with Republicans six votes short of the 60 needed to advance legislation. Throughout the debate, lawmakers have traded accusations over whether temporary measures would let the president selectively pay some federal employees to mute public pressure, a dynamic critics say could make future shutdowns more frequent and longer. For controllers and the traveling public, the standoff has real-world consequences measured in hours on hold at the gate and extra minutes circling in holding patterns.

At big facilities like Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles, supervisors are juggling rosters that force mandatory overtime and compress rest periods. Controllers describe finishing a 10-hour stretch and returning the next morning for another long day, with only a few hours at home in between. NATCA says workers are doing their best to hold the line on safety, but the pace is punishing and unsustainable. In Denver, the controller who saw a $0 paycheck after 60 hours of work said the math is simple and harsh: the mortgage is due, credit card balances don’t stop, and utility bills keep arriving. On top of that, many families are paying out of pocket for child care to cover the extended days, with no paycheck arriving to offset the cost.

United’s Chicago hub has become a centerpiece for the airline’s assistance program as the shutdown extends past a month. Volunteers from ground operations and customer service have pitched in to portion and deliver meals to restricted areas. In Houston and San Francisco, cafeteria partners have coordinated with station managers to send trays of hot food to towers during peak periods. JetBlue crews in New York and Boston have delivered breakfasts ahead of first-bank departures, while Delta teams in Atlanta and Los Angeles have stocked break rooms with sandwiches and snacks for controllers rotating through 10-hour tours. The free meals are not a cure, airlines stress, but they address a basic need during long shifts for people who cannot leave secured areas to buy food.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s appeal at LaGuardia crystallized a growing worry within the industry: that the next generation of controllers, still in training and paid at lower rates, are the least able to absorb missing one paycheck after another.

“Many of our controllers can make it without this first paycheck. They’ve been in the job for, you know, 10, 15, 20 years. They plan for days like this. But we have a lot of new controllers who are still in training that aren’t at a high level in income and they can’t handle what’s happening to them today.”

In a profession that demands unwavering focus, personal finances are now an unwelcome distraction in radar rooms where seconds matter.

NATCA’s message to travelers has been direct: call your senators and representatives. The demonstrations at 20 airports were designed to put faces to the statistics—a Denver controller on a $0 paycheck after 60 hours, a trainee weighing a second job driving late nights to cover car payments, an engineer on furlough waiting for a green light to return to inspecting critical equipment.

“We are the rope in this tug-of-war game, and that is what we’re trying to raise awareness about,” Daniels said, emphasizing that the burden falls on people responsible for keeping planes safely separated. “We’re going to have to slow it down, as these people cannot focus on their jobs. That makes it less safe.”

Mark Rausch’s questions—”Are we going to start driving Uber? Are we going to start doing maybe DoorDash?”—capture a daily reality that would have been unthinkable a month ago for highly trained professionals. Controllers say they are contacting lenders to ask for forbearance, rationing medication refills, and pushing off car maintenance, measures that risk longer-term damage in exchange for making it through another week. Some report that teammates have already picked up gig work after hours, trading sleep for cash, then turning up at the tower before dawn for another 10-hour tour.

The air traffic system is designed with conservative margins for a reason, and those margins depend on people who are well-rested, well-supported and clear-headed. Airlines handing out free meals can buy time and offer gratitude, but union leaders and the Transportation Department say the only real fix is ending the government shutdown and paying the people who keep aircraft moving. As of October 30, 2025, the impasse remains, controllers are still working without pay, and United, Delta and JetBlue continue to deliver food to towers and break rooms at major airports nationwide.

In the meantime, passengers will likely see more delays and longer lines as facilities “slow it down” to match staffing and keep safety first. That means controllers are spacing aircraft a bit wider, clearing fewer departures per hour at busy hubs, and occasionally putting ground stops in place when storms and staff shortages collide. For the airlines, the cost is measured in missed connections and reshuffled crews. For controllers, it is another day juggling unpaid work with family budgets and gig shifts—hoping the next paycheck is not another $0, and that lawmakers in Washington find a way to resume funding before the engine of the national airspace system begins to sputter.