U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that air traffic controllers (ATCs)—thousands of whom have been working without pay during the federal government shutdown—will soon be compensated in full.
Speaking at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (KORD) on Tuesday, Duffy said ATCs will receive about 70 percent of their pay within one to two days of the government reopening, with the rest coming within one week. The Senate on Monday passed a bill that would restore federal appropriations, sending it to a House vote on Tuesday.
Duffy said Tuesday marked a significant improvement in ATC staffing, which has been a chronic issue during the shutdown. The number of FAA staffing triggers at ATC facilities, he said, dropped from 81 on Monday to just four on Tuesday. However, he vowed to “look at” controllers who “decided on a continual basis not to show up for work” during the shutdown, saying he is “concerned about their dedication.”
“I’m trying to bring more air traffic controllers in,” Duffy said. “I’m not trying to take air traffic controllers out. But if we have controllers who systemically weren’t doing their job, we will take action.”
The transportation secretary doubled down on President Donald Trump’s carrot-and-stick proposal to “significantly” dock pay for those controllers—and award $10,000 bonuses to those who “came for every scheduled shift.”
“Depending on how many we have, they should come to the White House, and [Trump] should present them with their checks,” he said.
Shutdown Stress
Franklin McIntosh, acting chief operating officer for the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO), also said ATCs would be “made whole” within one week of a return to normalcy. That conflicts with the assessment of Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), who said Monday that it took about two months for ATCs to be paid following the previous shutdown in 2019.
Controllers are often credited as the catalyst for ending the 2019 shutdown. Disruptions at major airports created by ATCs not showing up for work prompted Congress to return to the negotiating table, and a deal was reached hours later.
ATCs are prohibited by law from work actions such as coordinated sick leave, and Daniels on Monday reiterated that there are “no organized actions going on.” Still, controllers are increasingly staying home.
Per McIntosh, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were three of the four worst days on record during the shutdown in terms of the number of FAA staffing triggers at ATC facilities.
Typically, a staffing trigger prompts a ground delay program to make the rate of operations more manageable. Over the weekend, McIntosh said, the FAA had to implement stricter airspace flow programs “where we had to slow the entire country down, which forced massive cancellations and delays.”
Per FlightAware, there were more than 11,000 delays and nearly 3,000 cancellations into and out of the U.S. on Sunday.
“This is not sustainable for our air traffic controllers, for our technicians, and for the American public,” McIntosh said.
In addition, the FAA last week ordered a phased 10 percent reduction in operations at 40 major airports, which ramped up to 6 percent Tuesday. Separately, it limited general aviation and nonscheduled operations at 12 airports.
ATC Under Pressure
According to Daniels, about 91 percent of ATC facilities are not properly staffed due to a shortage of more than 3,000 controllers that existed before the shutdown. As a result, more than 40 percent require personnel to work 10 hours a day, six days a week.
The added stress of working without pay has taken a toll on these controllers, many of whom Daniels said are struggling to afford gas or childcare and driving for Uber or DoorDash to make ends meet.
The FAA order to reduce operations by 10 percent was guided in part by input from controllers, the agency said, with data indicating “increased stress on the system, which increases risk.” Duffy said the decision to reverse the order will come when that data reflects a higher level of safety—which may not be immediately after the shutdown ends.
“We’ve seen incursions on runways,” Duffy said. “We’ve seen loss of separation in the airspace, and we’ve seen heightened complaints by pilots of the communication they’re having with air traffic controllers.”
If the shutdown continues, the transportation secretary predicted that more than 10 percent of flights could be canceled as soon as Friday ahead of Thanksgiving, which he called the “Super Bowl of air traffic controlling.” Airlines, he added, may need to ground aircraft.
“If the house doesn’t pass this bill, I think you’re gonna look at Saturday, Sunday, and Monday as tiddlywinks,” Duffy said. “It was beautiful. It’s going to get much worse than that”
Ripple Effect
The end of the shutdown and restoration of ATC pay would alleviate staffing concerns. But the FAA could face a long-term problem.
According to Duffy, the agency is seeing about 15-20 ATC retirements per day, compared to four per day before the shutdown. The transportation secretary in May announced an initiative that pays retirement-age ATCs a 20 percent bonus for each year they continue to work. On Tuesday, though, he said a “far greater majority of those controllers that I thought were going to stay are now retiring.”
Trainees at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, meanwhile, are still receiving stipends despite the lapse in appropriations, Duffy said. But they are increasingly bailing due to fears of not being paid.
“We are going to get the academy fully operational to get as many controllers into the airspace as possible to make up that difference,” Duffy said.
The FAA in August released an ATC staffing blueprint that calls to bring on 8,900 new controllers by 2028. This year, it implemented incentives to ramp up hiring, such as cash bonuses for completing training. However, it takes months for students to graduate from the ATC academy—and years to train on the airspace they will ultimately oversee.
“This is a system that cannot just flip a light switch,” Daniels said.
Should staffing issues persist, Duffy said, the FAA will do whatever is necessary to protect passengers.
“We are concerned about people having flights delayed and having their flights canceled. That’s a problem,” he said. “But that is a secondary problem to safety. Safety is the No. 1 issue.”
