Flight Delays Hit New High Amid Ongoing Government Shutdown

Air travel issues because of the ongoing government shutdown, now in its 27th day, have hit a new high and are likely to only increase as gridlock continues in Washington.

On Sunday, more than 8,000 flights were delayed, including 590 at Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), 444 at Chicago O’Hare (ORD), 303 at Orlando International (MCO), 295 at Newark Liberty (EWR), and 287 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL).

Not all of those delays were directly due to air traffic control (ATC) staff shortages (some weather issues also caused delays), but some were directly due to the shutdown as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued ground delays in Chicago and Newark because of shortages. Instances of those shortages will continue to, to ramp up the further into the government shutdown the U.S. gets.

According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who spoke to the FOX News show Sunday Morning Futures yesterday, the FAA had staffing shortages at 22 locations on Saturday, and the staffing is “wearing thin” as workers, officially missing paychecks, start looking at other sources of income.

No ground delays directly tied to staffing shortages were yet on the schedule as of 9 a.m. EST on Monday — Orlando International (MCO) had a departure delay because of weather and Newark (EWR) had a 15-minute ground delay due to a high volume of scheduled traffic — but they could pop up as air traffic increases throughout the day.

During the last shutdown, a 35-day lapse in 2019, flight delays were widespread as more and more controllers called out, which is widely cited as a reason that the shutdown ended.

Almost all of the big voices in U.S. travel have called for an end to the shutdown, including ASTA, which was in Washington D.C. earlier this month to meet with members of Congress as part of its Legislative Day. The U.S. Travel Association, which also called for the government to reopen, said that the shutdown will cost the U.S. tourism economy about $1 billion every week.