U.S. federal government "stop" has entered the fourth week, a severe shortage of air traffic controllers caused multiple airport flights to be delayed or even cancelled, and airport operations are also affected. U.S. Transportation Secretary Daffy warned on 24 that the pressure air traffic controllers are currently under "unacceptable".
According to the latest data from the U.S. Flight Tracking website, the number of flights delayed across the U.S. due to various reasons rose from about 4,000 earlier this week to 6158. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on the evening of 23 that the shortage of air traffic controllers caused a large number of delays at airports such as New York, Washington, New Jersey.
During a press conference in Philadelphia, Daphne said that next week the air traffic controller’s salary will still be “a big zero” and that it is expected to be even more severe when staff shortages, airport chaos and flight delays happen and I think the current pressure on our air traffic controllers is unacceptable.”
Daphne also said that the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Controller College will run out of funds within weeks, and that there have been participants who have already decided to drop out of school due to a “stop-down.” Daphne warned that this would only make it harder for the Federal Aviation Administration to recruit enough controllers to offset the staff shortage as staff training takes years.
Nick Daniels, chairman of the National Association of Air Traffic Managers, said at a news conference that unpaid airlines are under tremendous financial pressure and some start part-time to maintain their livelihoods.
The United States has long faced a shortage of air traffic controllers, and many air operators have been forced to work overtime before the government’s “stop”.Since the government’s shutdown, approximately 1,30,000 air traffic controllers and approximately 50,000 employees of the Transportation Security Agency responsible for airport security inspections have been forced to work unpaid, and the number of employees requesting sick leave has increased.