Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 9 (Xinhua) With the "shutdown" of the U.S. federal government entering the eighth day, the shortage of air traffic controllers has led to a large number of flight delays in many parts of the United States, and the chaotic situation of the air transport industry has attracted widespread criticism from people inside and outside the industry.

Manpower crisis worsens

According to a number of comprehensive foreign reports, during the "shutdown" of the U.S. government, about 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 U.S. Transportation Security Administration staff in the United States were required to continue working without pay. However, many air traffic controllers began to call in sick leave, which aggravated the problem of "vacant posts" in the air traffic control system.

Before the last large-scale ¡°stop¡± of the federal government in late 2018 and early 2019, the United States Air Force manpower shortage was highlighted, many regulators were forced to overtime, some positions can only be ¡°single off¡± a week.

Nick Daniels, chairman of the National Air Traffic Management Association of the United States, said on the 7th that the "stop" highlighted the serious shortage of personnel in the U.S. air pipeline system, the problems of obsolete equipment and failures. he stressed that even if only a few controller are absent, it will have a "big impact" on those small airports that do not have enough people, because the entire system is lacking people, can not temporarily find replacement personnel, even if someone needs to obtain certification to enter specific air pipeline facilities.

As a result of the ¡°stop-down¡± crisis, many busy airports such as Washington¡¯s Reagan Airport and New Jersey¡¯s New York Freedom International Airport were delayed on a daily basis.According to Reuters reports, from 8am to 17:30am on the same day, about 3,000 flights were delayed across the United States, and a total of 10,000 flights were delayed on 6th and 7th.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Daffy said in an interview with the media on the 6th that there are several airport air managers ask for increased number of sick leave, if the air managers are insufficient, for safety reasons, the Ministry of Transport will have to reduce the number of flights to take off. On the 8th he was a guest of the U.S. Fox News channel in an interview program said that in the last few days tower people's shortage caused flight delay ratio has been up to 53%, far above the usual level of 5% of air managers are exhausted, and may not get a salary, only to "sick leave" to resist "stop".

Party disputes affect wages

Not only flights, but also the salary payment of air traffic controllers is facing "delays". Daniels said that many air traffic controllers and TSA officials are working unpaid at the moment, and if the two parties in Congress continue to argue over budget allocations, next week's regular payday may be delayed.

Daniels accused the two parties in Congress of putting party struggle above national interests, and resorting to whatever it takes to safeguard their own political agenda, which led to the "shutdown" of the government, but the consequences were borne by air traffic controllers, which was "completely unfair".

Due to the differences between the Republican and Democratic parties in health insurance and other related welfare expenditures, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a new provisional allocation bill before the end of the previous fiscal year on September 30th.

Senate Republican leader John Thun has repeatedly voted on the organization of the temporary allocation bill issued by the House of Representatives, but were all vetoed by Democrats, and the Republicans therefore accused the Democrats of delaying the "stop".

In the Democratic camp, Maryland Governor Wes Moore pointed out on the 8th that Republican President Trump could not "reach a deal" to maintain the normal operation of the government. Congressman Kwesi Mfum lamented that even traveling by plane began to make the public fear. "America should never be reduced to this situation". (Wang Yijun)