By David Shepardson, Reuters
Planes sit on the tarmac at Newark Liberty International Airport. Photo: SPENCER PLATT
Air travel turmoil deepened with more than 2700 flights delayed nationwide and more than 8600 delays on Sunday, with air traffic controller absences surging amid a federal government shutdown now in its 27th day.
The Federal Aviation Administration cited staffing shortages affecting flights across the Southeast and at Newark Airport in New Jersey, while the FAA imposed a ground delay at Los Angeles International that delayed flights by an average of 25 minutes.
Southwest Airlines had 45 percent, or 2000, of its flights delayed on Sunday, while American Airlines had nearly 1200, or a third, of its flights delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. United Airlines had 24 percent, or 739, of its flights delayed and Delta Air Lines had 17 percent, or 610, of its flights delayed.
Roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must work without pay. The Trump administration has warned that flight disruptions will increase as controllers miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday.
On Monday, Southwest had 15 percent of flights delayed, American 12 percent and Delta 9 percent as of 1.30pm EDT (1730 GMT), according to FlightAware.
A US Department of Transportation official said 44 percent of Sunday's delays stemmed from controller absences ' up sharply from the usual 5 percent.
The mounting delays and cancellations are fueling public frustration and intensifying scrutiny of the shutdown's impact, raising pressure on lawmakers to resolve the budget impasse.
The FAA is about 3500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels and many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown.
In 2019, during a 35-day shutdown, the number of absences by controllers and TSA officers rose as workers missed paychecks, extending wait times at some airport checkpoints. Authorities were forced to slow air traffic in New York and Washington.
- Reuters
