‘Am I going to get a paycheck?’: US govt shutdown cause staffing issues at airports, delays flights

The US government shutdown has disrupted flight operations across the country as the Federal Aviation Administration said staffing issues were causing delays at several airports, including Newark and Denver.

Some 13,000 air traffic controllers and about 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must still turn up for work during the shutdown. They are not being paid and controllers are set to miss their first paycheck on October 14.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said that air traffic controllers have been increasingly calling in sick since the government shutdown last week. He added that staffing had been cut by 50 per cent as the shutdown entered its sixth day on Tuesday.

The FAA said air traffic control staffing issues are impacting flights at numerous airports, including Newark, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas and Burbank. FlightAware said more than 4,000 flights in the US on Monday have been delayed, including 29 per cent of arriving flights at Denver, 19 per cent of Newark flights and 15% of Las Vegas flights. Weather issues are also impacting flights.

The US Senate has once again failed to pass a spending budget, making it the fifth such time that would continue to keep the government in a state of shutdown.

Both Democratic and Republican funding proposals failed to pass in the Senate, unable to reach the 60-vote threshold needed for approval.

Trump had warned earlier that another stalemate could result in significant job losses. The budget impasse has already left thousands of federal workers either furloughed or working without pay.

Duffy and the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association spoke at a press conference at Newark Liberty International Airport to discuss the effects of the shutdown. The airport is one of three serving the heavily Democratic-leaning New York metropolitan area and is a major United Airlines hub.

Duffy noted controllers are worried. “They’re thinking about, am I going to get a paycheck?,” Duffy said, adding that some are asking themselves: “Do I have to take a second job and drive Uber when I’m already exhausted from doing a job that’s already stressful?”

With inputs from agencies