Air traffic controllers still short-staffed after government shutdown

The United States has been working for years to hire more air traffic controllers. The longer federal government shutdown could have made the situation even more difficult.

“We need more of them to enter the profession, and this shutdown is going to make it more difficult for us to achieve that goal,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport Tuesday, a day before Congress signs a bill to fund the federal government through January, ending the shutdown.

Air traffic controllers had to work without receiving regular pay during the shutdown. They were partly paid Friday, according to people familiar with the matter, but during the shutdown some had taken second jobs to make ends meet, while the lack of regular pay added to their stress, union, government and legislative officials said.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported that insufficient staffing thresholds had been reached, slowing planes across the country during the final days of the shutdown. President Donald Trump threatened earlier this week to cut air traffic controllers’ pay if they don’t show up to work. On Friday, numbers were relatively strong in the United States and disruptions eased.

“It can’t make it seem like a great job because you’ll have to deal with it all the time,” said Tim Kiefer, who teaches air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

Kiefer served as an air traffic controller for more than two decades before retiring. He said closures or the threat of such closures were common during his career. “You might see people decide to do something else and say, ‘They didn’t get paid; they were stuck in the middle of a partisan conflict,’” he said.

The shortage of air traffic controllers delayed or canceled thousands of flights during the shutdown, affecting the travel plans of more than 5 million people, according to Airlines for America, an industry group that includes American airlines, United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines and others.

But even if partial salaries hit bank accounts, the personnel crisis that regularly disrupts travel is set to continue.

A government tally last year showed the United States was short 3,903 fully certified air traffic controllers out of a goal of 14,633. The shortages have been particularly severe at busy facilities, such as those where controllers guide planes in and out of airports in the congested New York region, adding to flight disruptions and frustrating airline executives and customers.

Meanwhile, retirements increased during the shutdown, with 15 to 20 people retiring per day, down from the usual rate of four per day, Duffy said Tuesday. Controllers must retire at age 56, but can do so earlier with benefits based on years of work.

Staffing levels were already limited before the shutdown began on October 1, with many controllers working six days a week. By mid-November, with air traffic controllers missing two full paychecks and the shutdown passing the month mark, the country was approaching crisis levels.

More than 10% of U.S. departures were canceled last Sunday due to bad weather combined with a shortage of air traffic controllers at facilities across the country. This is the highest rate since July 19, 2024, when the Crowd strike breakdown, which had a considerable impact on Delta Airlinesleading to thousands of canceled flights and causing travel problems, according to aviation data firm Cirium.

Hours after those cancellations peaked on Sunday, the Senate advanced a preliminary agreement that led to the vote ending the shutdown this week.

In early November, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to cut 4% of their domestic flights at 40 major airports, blaming security risks seen on increased pressure on air traffic controllers. Reductions are expected to reach 10% on Friday, if the closure does not end. Cancellations improved significantly over the week, however, and as of Friday morning, only 2% of U.S. departures were canceled, according to Cirium.

The FAA reduced its mandatory cuts from 6% to 3% starting Saturday, saying it would monitor the system’s performance through the weekend.

The disruptions were similar to those during days of severe storms, but were more widespread across the United States.

The last-minute cuts were a headache for the industry, where airlines from top bank Delta to struggling Spirt had already lowered their outlook for the year after an oversupply of flights and weaker-than-expected demand earlier this year. Airlines have not yet quantified the damage caused by the shutdown, but Bank of America estimates that the operating profit of the major network airlines will be hit between $150 million and $200 million and less than $100 million for other carriers.

Airline executives, exasperated by the recent disruptions, are now pushing Congress to ensure controllers are paid during the next shutdown.

“Over the past week, we have seen a crescendo effect as air traffic control staffing shortages have led to massive and unpredictable amounts of delays and cancellations across the industry – and this has come on top of a series of schedule reductions mandated by the FAA,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom and the carrier’s chief operating officer, David Seymour, said in a memo to employees Thursday, a day after the House approved a short-term funding bill. “Even though we have both been in this industry for a long time, only a few other events come to mind when we think about this level of disruption.”

It could have been worse. This part of fall travel demand is relatively weak, but Thanksgiving was fast approaching when Congress ended the shutdown regarding airline executives.

“This shutdown has strained our airline system and caused serious inconvenience to the millions of Americans who rely on it,” United said in a statement. “It should be obvious to everyone that policy debates, no matter how urgent, should never endanger air travel, and we urge Congress to ensure that the FAA and [Transportation Security Administration’s] funding is protected in the event of future lapses in federal appropriations.

This is not the first time that a government shutdown has put a strain on the aviation industry. The 2018-19 shutdown, then the longest in U.S. history, ended just hours after a shortage of controllers hampered travel in the New York area.

Some airline executives told CNBC they were frustrated by the recent shutdown and last-minute schedule changes, which turned out to be bigger than expected. One of them, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said “we were the pawns” of the closure.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Wednesday that “what we don’t like is being a political football” and said it’s unacceptable that air traffic controllers and TSA agents are forced to work without regular pay.

The best way to avoid such disruptions is to “ensure that these workers, the next time this happens, because it will, get paid,” Bastian said. “Who could disagree with that?”

The airline industry is urging Congress to pass legislation that could use funds generated from airline ticket taxes to ensure that air traffic controllers and other essential industry workers, like airport screeners and customs agents, are paid.

“You don’t hold the American public hostage in a political fight like this,” Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu, a former New Hampshire governor, said during a virtual news conference Wednesday, shortly before the House passed the funding bill.

Next Wednesday, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who chairs the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space and Innovation, will hold a hearing on the shutdown’s impact on aviation. Moran pushed for legislation this year that would allow the FAA to use the Airports and Airways Trust Fund, which is funded by taxes on airline tickets and fuel, to cover expenses in the event of a government shutdown.

“The government shutdown has severely affected our already fragile aviation industry, and it will take time to recover from its effects,” he said in a statement this week. “It is essential that we repair the damage caused and examine the long-term effects of the closure.”

Lawmakers earlier this year approved $12.5 billion to improve air traffic control, even as the industry said it needed billions more to modernize the system in the United States.

The fatal collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., in January has also made recruiting controllers more urgent, especially at congested installations.

About a month after the accident, Duffy announced that the country’s air traffic controller academy would increase student salaries and he authorized more universities to teach a similar program to help ease the shortage. Oklahoma City’s academy also remained open, a different tactic than the 2018-19 shutdown.

But these are not immediate solutions. It takes years for controllers to be fully trained to work in some of the most complex facilities, and academy applicants can’t be older than 30.