Air Travel Is In For ‘Mass Chaos’ If Shutdown Goes One other Week, Duffy Says

Key Facts

When Will Air Traffic Controllers Miss Their Second Paycheck?

Having acquired their first “zero paycheck” on Oct. 28, air visitors controllers are set to overlook their second paycheck on Tuesday, Nov. 11, and can obtain their backpay shortly after the federal government reopens and funding is restored. “At the end of this week, air traffic controllers are going to get a pay stub email that’s going to tell them how much they’re going to be paid next week, and that’s going to be zero,” Duffy instructed CNBC, strolling again a earlier menace to fireside controllers who didn’t report back to work. “I’m not going to fire air traffic controllers who are trying to put food on their family’s table. I am asking all of them to come to work … I’m pleading with them to get into the towers and the facilities across the country and keep our airspace operational.”

Surprising Fact

The betting platform Polymarket is predicting the shutdown will finish on Nov. 12—sooner or later after controllers miss their second paycheck—which is a full three weeks sooner than it was predicting Monday.

Have Air Traffic Controller Sick Calls And Absences Escalated During The Shutdown?

There has been a gradual escalation of absenteeism for the reason that shutdown started. This previous weekend, the FAA noticed practically 100 staffing triggers—alerts indicating an inadequate variety of controllers—essentially the most seen through the shutdown. A single advisory issued at 7:46 p.m. EDT on Friday night listed 39 staffing triggers.

Is It Safe To Fly During The Shutdown?

Duffy has repeatedly burdened that the FAA will cease flights if there’s an inadequate variety of controllers. “You see more delays, you see more cancellations of flights, and that’s because we slow traffic down because we don’t have enough controllers in the towers and TRACONs (Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities) to make sure we can navigate the flights,” Duffy stated. “Is there more risk in the system when you have a shutdown? Absolutely, there’s more risk. But if we thought that it is unsafe, we will shut the whole airspace down. We won’t let people travel. We’re not there at this point. It’s just significant delays.”

How Else Are Flight Disruptions Impacting The U.s.?

“This is ricocheting through the economy, and so it’s not just the consequence on our air travelers,” Duffy instructed CNBC. “Less people travel. That’s less people eating out at restaurants, less people staying in hotels, less people renting cars, buying gas.” The U.S. Travel Association estimates that the nation has already misplaced more than $4.8 billion in customer spending as a result of funding lapse.

Further Reading

Houston’s Bush Airport TSA Wait Times Top 3 Hours—As Unpaid Screeners Tell Of Agency’s ‘Scare Tactics’ (Forbes)