A week after the government’s closure, calls from the air traffic controller disease are beginning to cause delays and cancellations, since several towers of airports and control facilities do not have enough personnel to properly handle all flights.
The controllers are considered essential workers and are exempt from being suspended during a closure. It is estimated that 13,294 controllers will continue working without pay during closing, according to the closing plan of the transport department.
California Burbank airport was the hardest on Monday and was forced to close its tower from 4:15 pm at 10 pm PDT because it did not have air traffic controlle, according to FAA documents.
An American Eagle plane takes off from Hollywood Burbank airport on October 6, 2025 in Burbank, California.
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The airport remained open, but the flights were delayed on average more than 2.5 hours. The controllers of a San Diego installation handled traffic inside and outside Burbank during the closure of the tower.
“The authorization is closed. The land is closed. The premises is closed. The tower is closed due to the staffing. It simply communicates with socal in number 1-800 in the green book for authorization,” you can listen to a controller to inform the pilots about the air traffic control recordings, referring to a published list of airport information.
Several other ATC facilities also experienced personnel problems on Monday. The Philadelphia Tracon (Terminal Radar Focus Control), Denver Center, Detroit Tracon, Indianapolis Center, Phoenix Airport and Phoenix Tracon also had notices of personnel of the Federal Aviation Administration. More than 600 flights on Monday were delayed inside and outside Denver and more than 200 at the Phoenix airport.
“There has been a greater shortage of personnel throughout the system. When that happens, FAA slows traffic in some airports to guarantee safe operations,” the agency said in a statement to ABC News.
The National Association of Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA), the union that represents drivers throughout the country, said it is working with FAA to mitigate any interruption in national airspace.
“It is normal for some air traffic controllers to call patients on a given day, and this is the last example of how fragile is our aviation system in the midst of a national scarcity of these critical security professionals,” Natca said in a statement to ABC News.
While ATC staff is at critical levels throughout the country, it is rare that you have flight impacts due to the shortage of personnel in places such as Arizona or California, according to FAA documents reviewed by ABC News.
The Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, said at a press conference on Monday that calls due to controlling diseases have spread throughout the region and not from a specific airport or an ATC installation, but acknowledged that personnel levels in certain facilities have dropped to 50 percent.
“We do not have an installation that has had long -term problems with the illness license. But that is worrying for me. And if someone has to take a disease license, to drive Uber to make a difference, those are decisions they are going to make. But, of course, that is worrying for us,” Duffy said.
“These are high performance and high -performance professionals and safety driven that I don’t want them to drive for work,” Duffy added. “I don’t want you to find a second job to pay for invoices. I want them to be paid for the work they are doing today, keeping our airplanes in the air and our safe skies.”
Duffy met with controllers who handled Newark’s airspace on Monday and said they expressed concern about the additional financial stress of closing in a work already demanding.
The Air Traffic Control Tower of the Hollywood Burbank airport is located on October 6, 2025 in Burbank, California.
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“The constant message of these controllers was that they are not only thinking about airspace and the work they have to do in these towers or tracon centers throughout the country. Are they thinking of ‘Am I going to get a salary?'” He said Duffy. “So, what do they think, since they are controlling our airspace is: ‘How am I going to pay my mortgage? How do I pay my car? I have a couple of children at home, how do I put food on the table? I am working six days a week. Do I have to take a second job and drive Uber when I am already exhausted by doing a job that is already stressed to think?” “
Air traffic drivers will receive a partial payment check on October 14, but will not be paid on October 28 if the closure continues, according to Natca. According to the 2019 Government Employee Treatment Law (GEFTA), the controllers will receive later salary after the end of the closure.
The personnel crisis also led to some heated political exchanges on social networks. Newsom from the governor of California Posted in xSaying: “Thank you, @realdonaldtrump! The Burbank airport has zero air traffic controls from 4:15 pm to 10 pm today due to the closure of your government.”
The Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy backed Newsom, destination“Flash news! His democratic friends close the government because they want to make Americans pay medical attention for the illegal. And no state has more illegal than California! You care more about the illegal than our US air traffic controllers.
Another aspect of the air trip affected by the closure, which is on the verge of running out of funds, is the essential air service program (EAS). Duffy said the EAS program, which provides airlines subsidies to fly to rural areas that would otherwise have no air service because the route would not be profitable, will run out of funds on Sunday, October 12.
“Air carriers who continue to operate EAS flights beyond October 12, 2025, would do so at their own risk, since the department cannot pay the contracted subsidy,” said the DOT in a notice. The notice also says that if the operators continue to operate during the financing period, they could reimburse themselves in a “rat base”, which means they could not receive the total amount owed.
The greatest impacts would feel in Alaska, where the air trip is the main transport mode. Alaska Lisa Murkowski senator Posted in X, To say: “The critical assistance provided by these routes makes an interruption on any scale harmful to these communities, and the local air carriers that serve them.”
Murkowski said he is working with the administration to find a solution.
