Hundreds of air traffic controllers (ATCs) and FAA technicians who were required to work without pay during the federal government shutdown will receive a $10,000 bonus next month, the FAA and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said Thursday.
Of the approximately 11,000 ATCs and 6,600 technicians that remained on the job, 776 had “perfect attendance,” the agencies said. Recipients will receive a notification next week and be paid no later than December 9.
Earlier this month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said ATCs would receive about 70 percent of their backpay within two days of the government reopening, and the rest within one week.
“I am profoundly proud and grateful for the air traffic personnel who worked during extraordinary operational challenges to keep the NAS running safely during the longest government shutdown,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. “Their dedication represents the highest levels of public service.”
The $10,000 bonuses were first proposed by President Donald Trump in November. Duffy a few days later doubled down on the idea, calling it “brilliant.”
The president also called to “substantially” dock pay for controllers who took leave, saying they could be “quickly replaced” without “payment or severance of any kind.” Duffy vowed that the DOT would “take action” against “controllers who systemically weren’t doing their job.”
The DOT did not immediately respond to FLYING’s inquiry about a potential review of controller attendance records during the shutdown.
ATCs in the Middle
ATCs are often credited as a catalyst for ending the previous government shutdown in 2018-19.
Thirty-five days into that stalemate, an uptick in controller sick outs prompted the FAA to limit flights at several busy airports, which reportedly brought Congress back to the negotiating table. Hours later, an agreement to reopen the government was reached.
However, as National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) president Nick Daniels has repeatedly emphasized in media appearances, ATCs are prohibited from work actions such as coordinated sick-outs. Still, Duffy in early October said there was a “slight pickup” in sick leave.
According to Daniels, some controllers began driving for Uber or DoorDash during the shutdown to make ends meet, as they struggled to pay for gas, food, and childcare. Many had already been stretched thin—Daniels estimated that 91 percent of U.S. ATC facilities are understaffed, and about 40 percent of them require ATCs to work 10 hours a day, six days a week.
“They were on life support, and then all of a sudden, we get the shutdown, and now you’ve got people that weren’t showing up to work,” Representative Troy Nehls (R-Texas) said Wednesday at Honeywell’s American Aviation Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C.
Franklin McIntosh, acting chief operating officer for the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO), said that November 7-9 were three of the four worst days of the shutdown in terms of the number of FAA staffing triggers. To keep operations manageable, the agency had to implement an airspace flow program in addition to less stringent ground stops.
On November 10 alone, per Duffy, there were 81 staffing triggers. Early in October, the transportation secretary said that the proportion of U.S. flight delays attributed to staffing issues spiked at 53 percent—far above the typical 5 percent.
Sharon Pinkerton, senior vice president of legislative and regulatory policy for Airlines for America, said during Honeywell’s American Aviation Leadership Summit that shutdown-related disruptions impacted more than 6 million travelers.
A Future Fix
At the American Aviation Leadership Summit, lawmakers and aviation trade groups emphasized the need to keep the FAA and its employees funded if—or when—the government shuts down again. That could be as soon as January 30, when the continuing resolution that restored appropriations expires.
Several pieces of legislation have been proposed to do exactly that. In September, for instance, representatives Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and André Carson (D-Ind.) introduced House legislation that would tap into the Airports and Airways Trust Fund to pay ATCs during a future shutdown. The fund supports the national air transportation system and is funded by the domestic passenger ticket tax, commercial fuel tax, general aviation gasoline tax, and cargo tax.
The legislation, called the Aviation Funding Stability Act, has been a recurring proposal in Congress for years.
Another bill, introduced in September by the highest ranking members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, would instead pay ATCs using the $2.6 billion Aviation Insurance Revolving Fund. That pool of money was originally funded through airline war risk insurance premiums and covers insurance claims when airlines are activated by the Air Force’s Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) program.
Nehls, who co-introduced the latter bill, said it could be marked up as soon as December. Representative Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) said her office is reviewing the legislation. Pinkerton said that A4A supports both efforts.
“We don’t care how it’s done,” Pinkerton said. “The FAA needs to be protected, as well as the [Transportation Security Administration] and [Customs and Border Protection]…We have to get it done now before January 30.”
