Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday that his department may have to close certain parts of the country’s airspace next week if the government shutdown continues.
Blaming Democrats in Congress for the now 35-day shutdown, Duffy told reporters that if the stalemate does not end by Nov. 11, the country’s air travel system “will see mass chaos,” including flight delays, cancellations and perhaps the closing of certain airspace areas “because we just cannot manage it, because we don’t have the air traffic controllers.”
“With this shutdown, it would be dishonest to say that more risk is not injected into the system. There is more risk in the system,” Duffy added.
Last Tuesday, air traffic controllers missed their first paycheck since the shutdown began, after receiving “80 to 90 percent” of their paycheck in mid-October, Duffy noted. The Transportation secretary said this Thursday, air traffic controllers will receive an email saying they will receive a pay stub of $0 next Tuesday.
The situation has forced air traffic controllers to make difficult financial decisions, with some opting to take second jobs to “put food on their table, to put gas in their car,” Duffy said.
“A lot of us can navigate missing one paycheck. Not everybody, but a lot of us can. None of us can manage missing two paychecks,” he said, on what many controllers have told him.
More than 2,000 flights within, into or out of the U.S. have been delayed so far Tuesday, with more than 60 such flights canceled, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.
It is unclear what percentage of those impacted flights are delayed or canceled due to air traffic controller shortages. On Oct. 9, Duffy told Fox Business the share of delays stemming from staffing issues had jumped from its typical mark of 5 percent to 53 percent.
When reached for comment, the Federal Aviation Administration provided a blanket statement that it “slows traffic into some airports to ensure safe operations” amid air traffic controller shortages.
Duffy acknowledged during the press conference, though, that air traffic controller attendance “has been far better than past shutdowns.” In January 2019, during the most recent funding lapse, air traffic controller shortages released in flight delays along the East Coast.
Duffy also expressed confidence that the country’s air travel system will “recover pretty quickly” once the shutdown ends.
“Controllers will start to come back to work, hopefully, quickly,” Duffy said.
