Duffy, officials push for workers’ pay during shutdown
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged Congress to pay air traffic controllers and said flight delays will worsen during shutdown.
- The current government shutdown is approaching the record for the longest in U.S. history.
- Essential aviation employees, like air traffic controllers and TSA officers, are working without pay.
- Despite the current shutdown, flight operations have remained largely normal so far.
The government shutdown is days away from becoming the longest in American history. The previous longest, a 35-day funding pause in December 2018 and January 2019, ended partly because of increasingly tight staffing at some of the nation’s busiest airports.
During the current shutdown, much attention has been given to air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration screening officers. Those employees are considered essential and have continued working without pay.
So far, legislators on both sides of the aisle are largely dug in to their positions with no quick solution in sight.
The shutdown will hit the 35-day mark on Nov. 5, the record for the previous-longest shutdown and the point at which severe air traffic staffing shortages at some airports amped up pressure on government officials to get funding flowing again.
How aviation employees helped end the previous shutdown
Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers and TSA officers are largely seen as the catalysts for the end of the previous longest shutdown.
On Jan. 25, 2019, as the previous shutdown entered its 35th day, flight delays and cancellations started to pile up along the East Coast amid significant air traffic controller staffing issues – over and above the long-standing staffing problems that continue to plague the agency. Contemporary reports showed that the FAA noted a “slight increase in sick leave” that day, which put pressure on lawmakers in Washington to finally address the impasse. President Donald Trump signed legislation to reopen the federal funding taps that day.
Do Air Traffic Controllers and TSA officers receive backpay?
Yes, essential workers who continue their duties during funding lapses typically receive back pay once the government reopens.
Trump previously threatened that some furloughed federal employees would not receive back pay after the shutdown ends, but that would not appear to affect those who continue to report to work.
How flights have been performing so far during this shutdown
Despite sporadic staff shortages at air traffic control facilities across the country since the shutdown began, flight operations have been largely normal.
“Flight cancellations are very low,” Mike Arnot, a spokesperson for Cirium, an aviation data analytics company, said in a statement on Oct. 27.
Cirium tracks airline on-time performance among other metrics, and its data shows that carriers have been largely operating in a normal range for timeliness since the shutdown began.
Most major airports in the U.S. have been hovering around the 80% on-time departure target that is seen as the industry’s standard. Performance has been largely comparable in October compared to September, according to Cirium data, although Oct. 30 saw some of the worst airline on time performance so far since the shutdown began.
What ATC union reps are saying so far during this shutdown
Although air traffic controllers are largely seen as having played a central role in ending the previous shutdown, representatives from their union say they hope to remain apolitical and focus on the traveling public’s safety.
“Air traffic controllers don’t start or stop government shutdowns – politicians do. Yet right now, the people who keep our skies safe and our nation moving are doing their job without a paycheck,” National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels said in a statement on Oct. 29. “Many are already working six days a week, and now they are facing the impossible choice of taking on extra jobs just to feed their families. Meanwhile, Congress is leading us towards what could be the longest shutdown in our nation’s history, and introducing risk into an already fragile system.”
Officials from the government and air traffic controllers’ union say that flying remains safe, but warn that the longer the shutdown drags on, the more stress these safety-critical employees will be under.
“The pressure is real,” air traffic controller Joe Segretto said during a news conference with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Oct. 28. “We have people trying to keep these airplanes safe, we have trainees that are trying to learn a new job that is very fast-paced, very stressful, very complex, now having to worry about how they’re going to pay bills.”
What you’re entitled to if your flight is affected
If your flight is affected by shutdown-related staffing issues, you may not be entitled to much. FAA staffing is seen as outside of an airline’s control, so carriers aren’t on the hook in the same way they would be for delays caused by mechanical issues or other causes on their own end.
Still, if your flight is canceled for any reason, including a shortage of air traffic controllers, you’re entitled to a full refund if you choose not to fly on alternative itineraries offered by your airline.
