{"id":48334,"date":"2025-10-09T20:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T01:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=48334"},"modified":"2025-10-09T23:02:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T04:02:26","slug":"travelers-continue-to-deal-with-delays-amid-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=48334","title":{"rendered":"Travelers continue to deal with delays amid government shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Travelers in the United States are dealing with airline delays amid the ongoing federal government shutdown<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government shut down on Oct. 1 after lawmakers failed to pass a bill to fund the federal government for the upcoming fiscal year. The shutdown has already contributed to airline delays nationwide<\/u><\/a> and has had dire implications for the U.S. travel economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the shutdown began, many air traffic controllers have not shown up for work, massively contributing to the delays Americans are experiencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Air traffic controller shortage contributing to delays<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Air traffic controllers are considered essential government employees, and about 13,000 are required to continue working without pay during the shutdown, according to the Department of Transportation\u2019s (DOT) contingency plan<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between Monday and Tuesday of this week, approximately 10,000 flights were delayed. On Wednesday, an additional 3,000 flights were delayed, though weather may have contributed<\/u><\/a> to some of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airports in and near major cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and the District of Columbia have experienced delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airports were already dealing with staffing shortages, and the government shutdown has exacerbated the problem. As of May 7, only two of the 313 air traffic control facilities<\/u><\/a> in the U.S. met staffing targets set by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transportation Sec. Duffy responds<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy\u2002<\/u><\/a>said that delays are 10 times more likely due to air traffic controller staffing shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHistorically, there\u2019s about 5 percent of delays attributed to staffing issues in our towers,\u201d Duffy said<\/u><\/a> Wednesday on Fox News\u2019s \u201cThe Will Cain Show.\u201d \u201cThe last couple of days, it\u2019s been 53 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, Duffy told Fox Business that he may fire air traffic controllers<\/u><\/a> who haven\u2019t shown up for work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we have some on our staff that aren\u2019t dedicated, we\u2019re going to let them go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airline leaders and travel safety analysts warn that if the shutdown continues, the system could erode further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAir traffic controllers don\u2019t start a shutdown, and we don\u2019t end a shutdown. Politicians are the ones that start the shutdown, and they\u2019re the only ones that have the ability to end the shutdown,\u201d National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels told CNN<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One week of the shutdown has cost US travel economy $1B<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the U.S. Travel Association<\/u><\/a>, one week of the government shutdown has already cost the U.S. travel economy $1 billion. It\u2019s estimated to continue to affect the travel economy at the same rate as the shutdown continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis shutdown is doing real, irreversible damage,\u201d said Geoff Freeman,<\/u><\/a> president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travelers in the United States are dealing with airline delays amid the ongoing federal government shutdown. The government shut down on Oct. 1 after lawmakers failed to pass a bill to fund the federal government for the upcoming fiscal year. The shutdown has already contributed to airline delays nationwide and has had dire implications for the U.S. travel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":48335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1155],"tags":[24409,22698,1313],"class_list":["post-48334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-flight-delays","tag-government-shutdown","tag-travelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48336,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48334\/revisions\/48336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}