Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday gave a stark warning: if the government shutdown drags on past next Tuesday, Americans could see widespread travel disruptions, including parts of the country's airspace being closed down, the Hill reports. Duffy said the shutdown—which on Tuesday night, as it finished its 35th day, became the longest in US history, per NBC News—is injecting more risk into the system and making it increasingly difficult to keep air travel running smoothly. He placed blame on congressional Democrats for the ongoing stalemate. "It would be dishonest to say that more risk is not injected into the system," he said.
The financial strain on air traffic controllers is mounting. Last week, they missed their first full paycheck, and they're set to miss the next one as well—hence Duffy's assertion that "mass chaos" will ensue if the shutdown continues past Tuesday, their next payday, the AP reports. Some controllers, he noted, are taking second jobs just to cover basic expenses, and the prospect of missing two paychecks is something "none of us can manage," Duffy quoted the controllers as saying. Meanwhile, flight delays (sometimes lasting hours) and cancellations continue piling up. While it's unclear exactly how many of those are due to staffing shortages, Duffy previously said the share of delays linked to staffing has spiked from about 5%, its typical level, to more than half.
The FAA, for its part, said it slows traffic into airports as needed to maintain safety. Despite the mounting challenges, Duffy said air traffic controller attendance has actually been better than in past shutdowns. He pointed to the January 2019 funding lapse, when shortages led to flight delays along the East Coast, as a point of reference. Duffy expressed confidence that the system would bounce back quickly once the shutdown ends, with controllers returning to work as soon as they're able.
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