According to a Reuters report on the 27th local time, as the U.S. federal government continued to "shut down", the number of absentees of air traffic controllers surged, and more than 5600 flights were delayed across the United States that day. On the 26th, more than 8800 flights across the United States were delayed due to the same problem.
Reported that due to the current inability of the two parties in the U.S. Congress to reach an agreement on the government budget, currently about 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration employees in the United States cannot receive remuneration even if they work. This has caused many staff members to refuse to attend work, which in turn has led to inefficiently operating a large number of airports in the United States due to severe staff shortages.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration currently has 3,500 fewer air traffic controllers than needed, and many of the staff have actually been in a state of overload for six days of forced work a week before the government shutdown.
Officials at the U.S. Department of Transportation said, for example, that the rate of delay in U.S. civil flights under normal circumstances was about 5 percent, but that figure reached 44 percent on the 26th.
The U.S. government has also warned that although October 28 should be Japanese payday, airlines still cannot get their wages, so flight delays could even worsen.