So, how exactly are air traffic controllers, who were barely holding it together already, faring during the government shutdown? Turns out, not great! As essential workers, they must continue to show up to their high-stress jobs, which are understaffed and overworked, without getting paid. That is leading to shortages in the number of people actually showing up (who could have predicted this?), which in turn lead to 22 separate trigger warnings in the Federal Aviation Administration’s system monitoring this on Saturday. Sounds bad.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy delivered the update on Fox News, as reported by the Guardian. This is related to the full ground stop issued at LAX on Sunday, as well as surging flight delays at airports around the country. Duffy said that 50% of all these delays are directly attributable to the shortages, per CNN. As long as the shutdown drags on, these issues will only get worse, not better. ATCs are hard-working people who need to pay the bills somehow. And they’re calling in sick to do it.
It’s a longer-term problem than just the shutdown
America, the wealthiest nation on Earth and pioneer of aviation, still runs its air traffic control on Windows 95 and floppy disks. Meanwhile, ATC staffing levels were already 3,500 people under target even before Congress didn’t pass a budget. In other words, the FAA wants to grow the workforce by nearly 25%. To do that, though, ATC salaries really need to go up. No one should hold their breath for that.
Can anything be done? Over the summer, the FAA kicked around an idea: bringing in qualified immigrants to work this important job for the benefit of all Americans. That seems like a good idea that perhaps should be incentivized across the economy. Anyway, nothing has come of that so far, and so on the shortage goes.
The real risk here is that some ATCs might leave altogether, turning a temporary shutdown into permanent damage. For the moment, Congress doesn’t appear to be anywhere near a budget. To fix all this, it will need to throw some serious money at the FAA when it does.
