The shortage of air controllers in the middle of the closure causes canceled flights and delays throughout the country

A week after the closure of the government, the delays and cancellations of flights are beginning to increase as the disease calls that involve air traffic controls leave several towers of airports and control facilities without sufficient personnel to properly handle all flights.

The air traffic control tower that supervises airspace over the Nashville International Airport was operating with an extremely limited number of personnel on Tuesday, which forced part of the approach traffic to be managed by the air traffic control center in Memphis, Tennessee.

Flights inside and outside Nashville operated with an average delay of more than 2 hours on Tuesday night.

Dallas and Chicago were two other areas that suffered delays on Tuesday due to staff scarcity.

Flight delays in Dallas have an average of around 30 minutes and delays in Chicago have an average of 40 minutes, according to FAA notices.

The controllers are considered essential workers and are exempt from being suspended during a government closure. It is estimated that 13,294 controllers will continue working without pay during closing, according to the closing plan of the transport department.

It is not a new problem, but the closing “does not help at all”

Nick Daniels, president of the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA), the union that represents air traffic drivers, told ABC News that personnel shortage is not necessarily a new problem, but that they are now attracting more attention because “we are very focused on it.”

He added: “It is a closure. Finally, the problems of an air traffic control system with critical personnel are being seen. In the last nine months, there have been 1,058 cases in which one of our facilities has had to close, either temporarily for a few hours or during a shift. It is something with which air traffic controllers face daily. The closure does not help at all, but this is something that we deal with day after day.”

Although the provision of ATC personnel is at critical levels throughout the country, it is rare that you have impacts on flights due to the scarcity of personnel in places such as Arizona or California, according to FAA documents reviewed by ABC News.

Previous impacts in California

On Monday, Burbank airport in California was forced to close its tower for several hours because it did not have air traffic controlle, according to FAA documents.

The airport remained open but the flights suffered an average delay of more than 2.5 hours. The controllers of a San Diego installation managed the traffic that entered and left Burbank during the closure of the tower.

Several other ATC facilities also experienced personnel problems on Monday. The tracon (Radar approach control of the terminal) of Philadelphia, the center of Denver, the Detroit tracon, the center of Indianapolis, the Phoenix airport and the Phoenix tracon also received warnings of personnel from the Federal Aviation Administration. More than 600 flights on Monday suffered delays inside and outside the Denver airport and more than 200 at Phoenix airport.

“There has been a growing shortage of personnel throughout the system. When that happens, FAA slows traffic in some airports to guarantee safe operations,” the agency said in a statement to ABC News.

Natca, the air traffic controllers union, said earlier this week that he was working with FAA to mitigate any interruption in national airspace.

“It is normal for some air traffic controls to report sick on a given day, and this is the last example of how fragile is our aviation system in the midst of a national shortage of these critical security professionals,” Natca said in a statement prior to ABC News.

Financial concern for aerial drivers

The Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, said at a press conference on Monday that the calls of patients of the controllers have spread throughout the region and not from an airport or specific ATC installation, but acknowledged that the personnel levels in certain facilities have decreased by up to 50 percent.

“We have no installation that has had long -term problems with the casualties due to illness. But that worries me. And if someone has to leave a disease, driving Uber to make a difference, those are decisions that they will make themselves. But, of course, that is worrying for us,” Duffy said.

“These are highly qualified professionals, high performance and security -oriented that I don’t want them to drive to work,” Duffy added. “I don’t want you to find a second job to pay the accounts. I want you to pay them for the work they are doing today, keeping our aircraft in the air and our safe skies.”

Duffy met Monday with the controllers who handle Newark’s airspace and said they expressed concern about the additional financial stress of the closure in a work that was already demanding.

“The constant message of these controllers was that they are not only thinking about airspace and the jobs they have to do in these towers or tracon centers throughout the country. They are thinking of: ‘Am I going to receive a payment check?'” Said Duffy. “So now what they think while controlling our airspace is: ‘How am I going to pay my mortgage? How do I pay my car? I have a couple of children at home, how do I put food on the table? I am working six days a week; do I have to accept a second job and drive Uber when I am already exhausted to do a job in which it is already stressful to think?'”

Air traffic drivers will receive a partial payment check on October 14, but they will not be paid on October 28 if the closure continues, according to Natca. According to the Law of Fair Treatment to the employees of the 2019 Government (GEFTA), the controllers will receive backward payments once the closure ends.

The personnel crisis also caused some heated political exchanges on social networks. California Newsom governor Posted in xSaying: “Thank you, @realdonaldtrump! The Burbank airport has zero air traffic controls of 4:15 pm to 10 pm today due to the closure of your government.”

The Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, responded to Newsom: destination“Last minute news! Your Democratic friends closed the government because they want the Americans to pay the medical attention of the illegal. And no state has more illegal than California! You worry more about the illegal than our US air traffic controllers.

Program that grants subsidies for rural trips also impacted

Another aspect of air transport affected by the closure, which is about to run out of financing, is the Air Service (EAS) program.

Duffy said the EAS program, which provides airlines subsidies to fly to rural areas that would otherwise have no air service because the route would not be profitable, will run out of funds on Sunday, October 12.

“The airlines that continue to operate EAS flights beyond October 12, 2025 will do so at their own risk, since it is possible that the department cannot pay the contracted subsidy,” said the DOT in a notice. The notice also says that if carriers continue to operate during the financing period, they could receive a “prorated” reimbursement, which means that they may not receive the total amount owed.

The greatest impacts would feel in Alaska, where air transport is the main means of transport. Alaska Lisa Murkowski senatorPosted in X, saying: “The critical assistance provided by these routes makes an interruption at any scale harmful to these communities and local airlines that serve them.”

Murkowski said he is working with the administration to find a solution.