Air traffic controller absences delayed or temporarily halted operations at airports on Thursday, as the Trump administration warned of worsening disruptions while workers go without pay.
The worst of the staffing interruptions was at Orlando International Airport, where the Federal Aviation Administration warned in an advisory Thursday evening that for a period of time, “no arrivals will be able to land as there will be no certified traffic controllers available.” By Thursday night, the airport was reporting average delays of about 2 hours and 40 minutes, with some flights delayed for nearly 12 hours, and several canceled.
As interruptions unfolded in Orlando, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City entered a ground stop for certain flights because of insufficient air traffic staffing, capping a day of delays and suspended operations because of storms and an aircraft emergency. And controller shortages at Ronald Reagan National Airport, outside Washington, caused delays through the afternoon and evening.
The delays and their ripple effects along the East Coast followed a warning that Vice President JD Vance and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had issued hours before of impending “disaster” if the government shutdown continued into November. The holiday travel season and the worsening winter weather, they argued, would increase the demands on air traffic controllers just as working without pay could become untenable.
“A lot of our people can go through the miss of one paycheck,” Mr. Duffy told reporters outside the White House, following a meeting Mr. Vance hosted with industry executives. “None of them can get through two paychecks.”
Controllers, whose first payday without pay was Tuesday, were already overtaxed before the shutdown, as many worked overtime shifts to compensate for the around 3,000 vacant jobs in a 14,000-position work force. That preexisting staffing crunch meant that many air traffic facilities did not have enough staffing to accommodate surprise absences, whether or not they were caused by the shutdown.
Mr. Duffy has argued that the air travel delays are evidence that it is still safe to fly, explaining that it shows the F.A.A. is responding to so-called “staffing triggers” by managing air traffic to ensure no facility takes on a greater workload than its controllers can handle.
Karoun Demirjian is a breaking news reporter for The Times.
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