The US Federal Aviation Administration has delayed flights for a third day at airports including Reagan Washington National and Newark Liberty International Airport as the agency continued to face higher-than-normal staffing shortages.
There were nearly 3000 flight delays on Wednesday after 10,000 delays in total on Monday and Tuesday with thousands tied to the FAA slowing flights because of air traffic controller absences at facilities across the country as the government shutdown reached its eighth day.
Some flights at Reagan were being forced to hold in the air due to a slowdown in air traffic, the FAA said.
Air traffic control staffing issues during this shutdown have emerged earlier than the last major halt to government funding in 2019, during President Donald Trump's first term, leading to unexpected shortages in cities around the country.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore and congressional Democrats called for the shutdown to end at Baltimore-Washington International Airport on Wednesday, noting that air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officers are working without pay. Moore, a Democrat, said Trump "could not close a deal" to keep the government open.
Representative Kwiesi Mfume, a Democrat, called for supplemental legislation that would continue to pay air traffic controllers during a shutdown.
"People are beginning to worry now about flying and we should as a nation never get to that point," he said.
In 2019, during a 35-day shutdown, the number of absences by controllers and TSA officers rose as workers missed paycheques, extending checkpoint wait times at some airports. Authorities were forced to slow air traffic in New York, which put pressure on lawmakers to quickly end the standoff.
Some 13,000 air traffic controllers and about 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must still turn up for work during the government shutdown, but they are not being paid. Controllers are set to receive a partial paycheque on October 14 for work performed before the shutdown.
The US has faced air traffic control shortages for more than a decade, and many controllers had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown. The FAA is about 3500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels.
As the shutdown entered a second week, there was no discernible endgame in sight.
"Congress, do your damn job," said Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, with other top union leaders near the Capitol.
No negotiations, at least publicly, are under way. But behind the scenes quiet talks are emerging.Â
Clusters of lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, are meeting privately, searching for ways out of the impasse, which hinges on striking a deal for preserving health care subsidies.
with AP