Flights to LaGuardia were temporarily halted on Friday morning due to a staffing shortage at two air traffic control facilities, according to the Federal aviation Authority. The ground stop at LaGuardia was lifted at 10:37 a.m. after an hour and 22 minutes, but there are still significant delays at airports throughout the Northeast, including Newark’s Liberty International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport.
Per Bloomberg:
The FAA’s website identified one of the affected facilities as Washington Center, which oversees mostly high altitude flight routes in the central region of the East Coast. It’s located in Leesburg, Virginia.
A second high-altitude control center in Jacksonville, Florida, also had a higher-than-expected absentee rate due to illness, according to the agency. However, the FAA hadn’t experienced any delays as a result.
The news follows reports that hundreds of Transportation Security Administration agents have stopped showing up to work, as the government has been shut down for 35 days and they can no longer afford to work without pay.
The White House said President Trump is monitoring the situation:
Sara Nelson, the president of the international Association of Flight Attendants, raised the possibility of a general strike on Sunday in her acceptance speech for the AFL-CIO’s MLK Junior Drumbeat for Justice Award. “Almost a million workers are locked out or being forced to work without pay. Others are going to work when our workspace is increasingly unsafe. What is the Labor Movement waiting for?” she asked, rhetorically. “Go back with the Fierce Urgency of NOW to talk with your Locals and International unions about all workers joining together - To End this Shutdown with a General Strike.”
On Wednesday, AFA-CWA issued a joint letter with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the Air Line Pilots Association International outlining safety concerns related to the ongoing shutdown. “Staffing in our air traffic control facilities is already at a 30-year low and controllers are only able to maintain the system’s efficiency and capacity by working overtime, including 10-hour days and 6-day workweeks at many of our nation’s busiest facilities,” the unions wrote, adding, “As union leaders, we find it unconscionable that aviation professionals are being asked to work without pay and in an air safety environment that is deteriorating by the day. To avoid disruption to our aviation system, we urge Congress and the White House to take all necessary steps to end this shutdown immediately.”
Later on Friday, the AFA-CWA released a statement directly addressing Congress:
In a statement emailed to New York, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said that it “does not condone or endorse any federal employees participating in or endorsing a coordinated activity that negatively effects the capacity of the National Airspace System or other activities that undermine the professional image and reputation of the men and women we represent.” It added, though, on behalf of its president Paul Rinaldi:
With that said, in the past few weeks, we have warned about what could happen as a result of the prolonged shutdown. Many controllers have reached the breaking point of exhaustion, stress, and worry caused by this shutdown. Each hour that goes by that the shutdown continues makes the situation worse.
We are at a 30-year low of fully certified air traffic controllers and as we have warned for several years, the efficiency of the system will be constrained when there is inadequate staffing to ensure the safety of all flights.
Air traffic controllers are required to report fit for duty every shift. It is a very high threshold of fitness demanded by the seriousness of the job. This shutdown has caused a tremendous amount of added stress for them on top of what is already a difficult and stressful job.
Air traffic controllers are required to report fit for duty every shift. It is a very high threshold of fitness demanded by the seriousness of the job. This shutdown has caused a tremendous amount of added stress for them on top of what is already a difficult and stressful job.
It affects all flights that are scheduled to use the airspace of facilities where staffing is inadequate to safely handle traffic volume.
This post has been updated throughout.
More on the Government Shutdown
- The Republican Party Is Out of Control
- Congress Averts Government Shutdown: How It Happened
- Government Shutdown Canceled As Democrats Support Pared-Down Spending Bill
