The ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which started on that same date, has resulted in huge lines and widespread chaos at airports across the country. This unprecedented disruption happened after the Republican and Democrat lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a state budget. As a result, about 750,000 federal employees are currently on unpaid furlough. Notably, essential government workers—many of them, like air traffic controllers, these days working under contract—labored without pay throughout this period. Their commitment to staffing honestly created a staffing crisis that threw air travel into chaos.
As the shutdown wore on, many regions were losing staff who fell below 50% staffing. This lack of staff caused a domino effect. A side effect of that is that big hubs including Newark, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, and even Burbank suddenly had delays of 40-60 minutes. On January 25, 2019, the mood darkened. Air traffic control at one southern California airport was left unmanned for almost six hours, as it was controlled from another facility because of the national staffing shortage and ongoing staffing crisis.
The consequences of the shutdown went much farther than just delays. The move cut into airline operations and pilot training. This confusion led many air traffic controllers to call in sick on January 25. Influenced by the storm, air travel ground operations at New York’s LaGuardia Airport were completely grounded for the day.
Sean Duffy, the former congressman, is now a CNN political commentator. In his comments, he underscored the larger impact that the shutdown is having on air traffic controllers. He stated, “Now what they think about as they’re controlling our airspace is: ‘How am I going to pay my mortgage?’” During his keynote, he shined a spotlight on the challenges for those working to keep the nation’s airspace safe. You’ll see congestion starting to flow from that,” he said.
After the shutdown was now into its fifth week, panicked and enraged advocacy from every corner finally moved the needle. At bottom, former President Donald Trump relented and signed a short-term spending bill that resolved the standoff after 35 days. The pressure on U.S. air travel was a powerful enough force that it played a major role in pushing the administration to reopen the government.