WASHINGTON: The air travel crisis deepened with more than 4,300 flights delayed nationwide Monday, following more than 8,800 delays Sunday, with air traffic controller absences increasing as the federal government shutdown reached its 27th day.
The Federal Aviation Administration cited staffing shortages affecting flights across the Southeast and at Newark Airport in New Jersey, while the agency imposed a layover at Austin Airport in Texas and a ground delay program at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport that delayed flights by an average of 18 minutes.
Southwest Airlines LUV.N saw 47%, or 2,089, of its flights delayed Sunday, while American Airlines AAL.O saw 1,277, or 36%, of its flights delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website. United Airlines UAL.O had 27%, or 807, of its flights delayed and Delta Air Lines DAL.N had 21%, or 725, of its flights delayed.
About 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration agents must work for free. The Trump administration has warned that flight disruptions will increase as controllers miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday.
As of Monday, Southwest had 24% of flights delayed, American 18% and Delta 13% as of 5 p.m. ET (9 p.m. GMT), according to FlightAware.
A U.S. Department of Transportation official said 44 percent of Sunday’s delays were due to the absence of controllers, a sharp increase from the usual 5 percent.
Growing delays and cancellations are fueling public frustration and intensifying scrutiny of the shutdown’s impact, increasing pressure on lawmakers to break the budget impasse.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was in Cleveland to meet with controllers Monday, while the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union is planning events at many airports Tuesday to mark the first missed paycheck.
The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels and many were working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown.
In 2019, during a 35-day shutdown, the number of absences by TSA screeners and agents increased as workers missed paychecks, extending wait times at some airport checkpoints. Authorities were forced to slow air traffic in New York and Washington.
