Airports on the East Coast, including LaGuardia Airport, in New York are experiencing air traffic delays resulting from staffing issues at a Federal Aviation Administration regional air traffic center.
“We have experienced a slight increase in sick leave at two facilities,” the FAA said in a statement Friday. “We are mitigating the impact by augmenting staffing, rerouting traffic, and increasing spacing between aircraft when needed.”
#FAA Statement: Staffing Update pic.twitter.com/CMVcyTNSz5
— The FAA (@FAANews) January 25, 2019
LaGuardia Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey have all been impacted by the staffing shortages, and incoming flights have been delayed by approximately 41 minutes. Departing flights from LaGuardia have been delayed by approximately 15 to 30 minutes, but departing flights from Philadelphia and Newark have been postponed by approximately an hour and 15 minutes.
Air traffic controllers have been working without pay during the partial government shutdown over a border wall funding dispute. President Trump has angled for more than $5 billion for the the project, but Democrats have not gotten on board.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump had been notified about the delays.
“The President has been briefed and we are monitoring the ongoing delays at some airports,” Sanders said in a statement. “We are in regular contact with officials at the Department of Transportation and the FAA.”
[Read more: Pie in the sky: Canadian air traffic controllers buy pizza for American counterparts during shutdown]
The delays at the airports comes after the Air Traffic Controllers Association sent a letter to Airlines for America on Wednesday claiming that they have started to receive “resignation letters and copies of retirement forms,” although an FAA spokesperson told Politico that there had been “no measurable increase” in resignations or retirements.
“This shutdown needs to end now,” the Air Traffic Controllers Association wrote. Furthermore, Transportation Security Administration has also seen employees not appear at work. For example, TSA said 10 percent of their employees made unscheduled call outs on Sunday — three times the amount of unscheduled call outs from a year ago. TSA has also distributed an internal email to 100 airports requesting that 250 employees work at different airports to accommodate the staffing shortages.
American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. issued a statement Friday claiming that “being forced to work without pay has transformed the situation to one where the safety and security of the flying public is now at risk.”
“It is simply impossible to maintain an elite level of safety and security with a workforce that is exhausted, hungry, and financially anxious. It is well known that stress – and hunger – undermine mental acuity. [Transporation Security Officer’s] jobs require an intense attention to detail, high emotional intelligence, and full environmental awareness. Mountains of neurological research has shown definitively that acute stress (not the chronic stress that is a part of TSOs’ daily routine) is associated with depression, lethargy, lack of focus, anxiety and worry. Terrorists know this as well, and we cannot afford to wait a moment longer for them to attempt to exploit it.”
