The government shutdown is strangling aviation

in May, Edge It stated that the American aviation system was so fragile that “the smallest disturbance could throw the entire system into disarray.” The turmoil arrived on October 1, when the federal government shut down over a budget dispute. Chaos has already occurred.

More than 6,000 flights are being delayed daily, nearly double October’s historical average according to Department of Transport statistics. The Transportation Security Administration has warned of longer security lines at airports and has stopped updating real-time checkpoint information on its MyTSA app. Some major airports were even forced to operate without air traffic control for hours at a time.

It is the pay, or lack thereof, that is the cause of the turmoil. When the federal budget ran out on October 1, more than half a million employees were immediately furloughed. But the 75,000 front-line air traffic controllers and TSA officers are “exempt” employees who must come to work regardless of the circumstances.

In a statement published on X, Transport Minister Sean Duffy tried to reassure his staff.

“Controllers who show up for work will get paid, but not on time,” he said.

This won’t work for many furloughed employees who can’t afford to work on uncapped IOUs, Johnny Jones said. He has been with TSA since 2002 and represents TSA employees within the American Federation of Government Employees, the nation’s largest federal employee union.

“Our first problem is the uncertainty surrounding how long this will last, and how long we will have to come to work without pay,” he said. Edge. “You’re living off what you’ve been able to save. You probably have a week or two’s notice.”

There is little federal employees can do to publicly defend the wages they are owed. Air traffic controllers know this lesson well. In 1981, 13,000 of them went on strike to demand better wages, adequate staffing, and public safety improvements. Citing a 1966 law prohibiting federal employees from going on strike, President Ronald Reagan not only fired striking workers but also banned them from holding another federal job for life. This action halted the strike, but also created an air traffic control crisis that continues to this day.

Sick leave is one of the only levers essential workers can pull. Under their contracts, air traffic controllers and TSA employees can use their banked sick leave with some restrictions as long as they don’t call in for more than three consecutive days.

Before the shutdown, some probationers used their sick leave to give themselves a temporary break from their grueling schedules, which may require them to work 10 hours a day, six days a week. Others used it to deal with the shock of an equipment outage that immediately put dozens of commercial flights at risk of collision. Now, they’re using sick leave to reduce their workload at a job that can’t pay their wages for the foreseeable future.

On October 6, Duffy held a press conference in front of Newark Airport’s baggage claim to address the employment situation.

“We track sick calls and sick leave,” he said. “We’ve seen an uptick in some areas, and we’re dealing with that.”

Even a “small spike” can have huge impacts across the country.

On the same day, 11 major air traffic facilities announced that staffing levels would be so low that they would not be able to safely handle the volume of planned traffic. Hollywood Burbank Airport had no air traffic controllers on duty for about six hours; Pilots taking off or landing at the airport had to coordinate with each other via a common radio frequency.

Since then, staffing shortages have affected half of the nation’s flight facilities, one-third of the arrival and departure facilities, and tower operations at Austin, Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Phoenix and Reagan airports. On Friday, October 10, the start of the Columbus Day weekend, more than 7,700 flights were delayed across the country — or nearly one in every five scheduled flights, according to FlightAware.

In an interview with Fox Business, Duffy threatened to fire “a small subset of probationers who don’t show up to work…kids who are a problem.” The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), the union that represents most U.S. air traffic controllers, warned its members not to engage in “coordinated activity that adversely affects NAS capability.” [national airspace system]”.

But this is not a coordinated activity. They are individuals who use the tools they have to protect themselves from unnecessary exploitation.

The impact on airport security is difficult to measure. Since October 9th, the TSA has published daily wait time data on the X, something it had not done before. However, the agency does not keep accurate historical records, so it is impossible to put these numbers in context. We know that thousands of TSA employees have called in sick more than usual, because many of them can’t afford to have a job that doesn’t pay them.

The government shutdown during the first Trump administration lasted 35 days, the longest in US history. So far, the current period will last at least 19 days, as congress is not scheduled to return from recess until October 19. Until the crisis ends, the situation for travelers — and those essential workers who keep America flying — will only get worse.

“People can’t come to work if they’re not making money. Day care centers don’t take IOUs, grocery stores don’t take IOUs, gas stations don’t take IOUs,” Johnny Jones said. “If this continues for 30 or 40 days, the airport will turn into a ghost town.”