More FAA staffing shortages as government shutdown enters 8th day

By Pete Muntean, Aaron Cooper, Rebekah Riess, Dalia Faheid, CNN

Washington (CNN) — The Federal Aviation Administration is again reporting short staffing at air traffic control operations as the government shutdown continues in its eighth day.

On Wednesday evening, three major air traffic control facilities will be short-staffed, according to a publicly available FAA operations plan.

The control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport will not have its normal complement of controllers from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. local time. Delays for flights heading to the airport are “probable” and could average 31 minutes, according to the FAA.

Controllers at the airport have been under scrutiny since the airport was the site of a January 29 deadly collision between a military helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet that killed 67 people and a subsequent series of close calls.

The controllers who handle flights arriving and departing Newark Liberty International Airport will also be short staffed from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. with estimated delays of up 30 minutes.

Earlier Wednesday, the facility was short-staffed for two hours, starting at 7 a.m. local time. It was the only operation to report a so-called “staffing trigger” for the morning shift, according to an FAA operations plan.

The facility handling flights approaching Newark, which is based in Philadelphia, also saw staffing shortages earlier this year when communication and radar outages caused five controllers to take trauma leave, resulting in thousands of canceled flights.

The number of controllers is expected to be below normal levels at the approach control, which handles flights landing and taking off at Orlando International Airport between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Staffing shortages do not always mean airports will see delays. There are a variety of things the FAA can do to manage airspace, including rerouting en route flights, though sometimes delays are needed to ensure planes can operate safely.

The cause of the staffing problems was not immediately known, but the Department of Transportation reported an increase in sick calls by air traffic controllers since the start of the shutdown.

Weather is also expected to impact flights in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Miami and Fort Lauderdale Wednesday.

TSA reports ‘no delay in operations’ due to callouts

The Transportation Security Administration, which operates security screening checkpoints at US airports, has not seen slowdowns due to officers calling out sick.
“TSA has not experienced any delay in operations due to callouts, and remains fully capable of facilitating safe and secure travel for passengers,” the agency said in a statement.

In 2019, staffing issues at the TSA along with 10 air traffic controllers calling out sick, snarled air traffic, leading to an end to that shutdown. Their actions helped tip the scales in Washington, driving President Donald Trump to agree to a three-week agreement.

Controllers not being paid during shutdown

Controllers are considered essential government employees and required to work during the shutdown, but are not currently being paid. Organized work actions, like strikes or sick-outs, are illegal.

For decades, there has been a shortage of air traffic controllers in the United States and many are working mandatory overtime, so a small number of people taking unscheduled time off can have a major impact.

The union, which represents controllers, said the problems during the current shutdown illustrate how short-staffed and fragile the air traffic control system is.

“Air traffic controllers are going to do everything they can to show up to duty, save people’s lives, and do the job that we do day in and day out,” National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels told CNN. “Air traffic controllers don’t start a shutdown and we don’t end a shutdown. Politicians are the ones that start the shutdown, and they’re the only ones that have the ability to end the shutdown.”

The next paycheck for controllers is scheduled for Tuesday, but that will only include payment for hours worked before the shutdown.

At Baltimore/Washington International Airport, on Wednesday morning, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore thanked the workers who have stayed on the job.

“Our BWI workers are still here. They’re on the job, but unfortunately, because of this situation, the majority of them are, right now, are working without pay,” the governor said. “They’re doing it because they’re patriots. They’re doing it because they know that this work matters.”

Maryland Congressman Kweisi Mfume joined the governor and advocated for creating an emergency supplemental appropriation, “separate and apart from everything else,” to ensure pay for air traffic controllers. “And yes, they are essential. And yes, we have an obligation to make sure that the skies are safe. People are beginning now to worry about flying, and we should never, as a nation, get to that point,” Mfume said.

“If you’re feeling the impact of the shutdown, you can thank the radical Democrats,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X in response to the Maryland governor’s news conference Wednesday. “Stop the madness and end the shutdown.”

‘Absolutely insane’ situation in Nashville, controller tells pilots

Tuesday night, the approach facility in Nashville, which guides planes into and out of the airport, had to shut down for five hours, due to staffing according to a notice to pilots.

“There was only four of us (that) showed up,” a controller quipped to a plane waiting to take off, according to audio from LiveATC.net. “We don’t own the airspace right now, Memphis owns the airspace.”

The comments illustrate the frustration as the four remaining controllers waited on a regional air traffic control center across the state to clear planes to enter the airspace.

“Center has our airspace now,” the tower controller told a Southwest Airlines pilot waiting to take off for Destin, Florida. “We are still waiting on them to give us the authority to go ahead and get you going.”

One controller told pilots waiting that, while controllers are used to staffing problems, this was different.

“We’re low staffed all the time (but) this is very rare. We have four controllers in the building and we went to a (visual flight rules) tower only, at a level 10 airport in the (national air space), which is absolutely insane,” the first controller said. “But it has to happen at some point. You can only work so many planes with so many people.”

As the evening continued, delays mounted as flights were cleared to land but planes waiting to take off were stuck on the tarmac.

“Center doesn’t know how to release a plane and have one land at the same time,” the controller complained in the audio recording. “This is why God made aircraft controllers that work approach control.”

Ground delays for flights headed to Nashville averaged about two hours Tuesday night.

The tower at Chicago O’Hare, along with FAA facilities in Albuquerque, Atlanta, Boston, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Newark Philadelphia also saw staffing shortages Tuesday.

Monday, at Hollywood Burbank Airport in California, the entire tower was forced to shut down when no controllers showed up to work. Flights used a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency, known as CTAF, to announce intentions and positions of their aircraft. It’s a way for pilots to communicate when no tower is present, but it is most commonly used at much smaller airports. More than two hours of delays were reported at the time.

CNN’s Brandon Miller contributed to this report.

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