Nov. 2 (UPI) — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday that the government shutdown, now in its sixth week, would continue to cause flight delays, cancellations and closures amid air traffic control staffing shortages across the country.
“We will delay, we will cancel any kind of flights across the national airspace to make sure people are safe,” Duffy warned during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”
Duffy ‘s comments came during a ground stop at Newark Liberty International Airport Sunday, which he said could spread to airports nationwide the longer the shutdown dragged on.
As few as 20 flights per hour were arriving at Newark late Sunday afternoon, local media reported. Delays averaged about two hours Sunday, but some flights were more than three hours late.
“There is a level of risk that gets injected into the system when we have a controller that’s doing two jobs instead of one,” he continued.
Nearly half of all major air traffic control centers are already facing staffing shortages across the country, which prompted a flurry of airport closures, ground stops or long flight delays, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA’s real time website shows Boston’s Logan Airport and Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas closed Sunday, ground tops at Chicago’s O’Hare, and major ground delays at LAX in Los Angeles and the San Francisco International Airport.
Duffy warned during his Sunday interview that the situation could deteriorate still further as the shutdown continues.
“If the government doesn’t open in the next week or two, we’ll look back as these were the good old days, not the bad days,” he cautioned.
He said the administration is considering “pulling in whatever dollars we can” when asked whether there are other funding sources to pay the costs associated with air traffic control facilities and employees.
Federal law requires air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration, along with some other government employees, to work without pay during the duration of the shutdown.
“They have to make a decision,” Duffy said. “Do I go to work and not get a paycheck and not put food on the table, or do I drive for Uber or DoorDash or wait tables?”
Nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers are working with no compensation amid the shutdown. Washington lawmakers are at an impasse of a GOP-led budget bill, which has failed a Senate vote a dozen times.
Democrats are holding out for an extension of Biden-era premium subsidies that make health insurance more affordable on the federal marketplace.