Post by : Rameen Ariff

US airports are experiencing widespread flight delays for the second day in a row due to staffing shortages caused by the ongoing government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported Tuesday.

More than 3,000 flights were delayed on Tuesday, affecting major airports including Houston, Dallas, Chicago O’Hare, Nashville, and Newark. Chicago O’Hare is reducing the number of arriving flights per hour because of low staffing, resulting in average delays of 41 minutes. Similarly, Newark is holding arriving flights for up to 30 minutes, and Washington Reagan may also face delays.

Nashville airport is experiencing severe staffing problems and plans to limit operations later on Tuesday. Memphis Center will take over approach control to manage the situation. Meanwhile, staffing challenges have also been reported at the Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center.

The shutdown has left around 13,000 air traffic controllers and about 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers working without pay. Partial paychecks for controllers are expected on October 14 for work completed before the shutdown.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that some air traffic controllers are taking more sick leave than usual, and staffing levels in certain areas have dropped by 50 percent since the shutdown began. “If we don’t have controllers, we make sure airspace is safe by slowing traffic,” he explained.

Flight tracking data from FlightAware showed that Nashville faced delays on 20 percent of its flights, with 225 flights affected, while Chicago O’Hare saw delays on over 570 flights, more than 20 percent of total flights. Southwest Airlines reported over 500 delays, and American Airlines reported 400.

Both political parties are blaming each other for the slowdown. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats, while California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, blamed President Donald Trump.

Severe weather has also contributed to flight disruptions across the country.

Air traffic controller shortages are not new in the US. Even before the shutdown, the FAA was short by 3,500 controllers, and many were working overtime and six-day weeks. Past shutdowns, including a 35-day shutdown in 2019, showed that delayed paychecks increase absences, slow checkpoint operations, and force flight delays.

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