Travelers at several key airports in the United States are enduring significant delays on Tuesday as staffing issues continue to escalate amid the ongoing government shutdown, now in its 35th day.
Flight alerts indicate that air traffic centers in Houston and Phoenix have introduced Ground Delay Programs. This measure has been implemented to manage the flow of incoming flights, easing the burden on the air traffic control system.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has attributed these disruptions primarily to staffing shortages, with some flights experiencing delays of nearly three hours for both takeoff and landing approval.
At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, the FAA has reduced the arrival capacity to 40 flights per hour, a significant drop from the usual peak of around 70 flights.
The advisory notes that average delays span 40 minutes, with the longest delays reaching up to an hour and 40 minutes, affecting major departure zones across the country.
The situation is even more severe at William P Hobby Airport in Houston, where the FAA has capped arrivals at 16 flights per hour, resulting in maximum delays approaching three hours.
The restrictions apply to flights departing from every major regional control center in the contiguous US, meaning ripple effects could extend far beyond Texas.
In Phoenix, controllers at Sky Harbor International Airport are also slowing incoming flights.
At Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), the FAA set the arrival rate at just 40 flights per hour, compared to typical peak rates closer to 70 (PICTURED)
The Federal Aviation Administration said the delays are primarily due to ‘staffing’ shortages, with some flights facing up to nearly three-hour waits before takeoff or landing clearance
The FAA set a rate of 40 arrivals per hour, citing the same staffing shortage. Average delays are hovering around 45 minutes, with some flights waiting over an hour and a half to land.
The programs are in place through the early hours of Wednesday morning, potentially affecting hundreds of flights nationwide.
The FAA said that roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 TSA agents have been working without pay for weeks.
Before the shutdown, the agency was already grappling with a perpetual shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers.
The delays come as US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned on Tuesday that if the federal government shutdown continues another week, it could lead to ‘mass chaos’ and could force him to close some of the national airspace to air traffic, a drastic move that could upend American aviation.
‘If you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos, you will see mass flight delays,’ Duffy said at a press conference.
‘You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it. ‘We will restrict the airspace when we feel it’s unsafe.’
With the standoff in Congress over health care spending set to become the longest in history, Trump’s Republicans and the opposition Democrats are facing increasing pressure to end a crisis that has crippled public services.
Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) has experienced delays all day due to staffing shortages
Airport workers calling in sick rather than working without pay, leading to significant delays, was a major factor in President Donald Trump bringing an end to the 2019 shutdown, the joint-longest alongside the current stoppage, at 35 days.
After five weeks of failed votes on a House-passed resolution to reopen the government, the Senate rejected the legislation for a 14th time on Tuesday.
Democrats say the only path to reopening the government is a Trump-led negotiation over their demands to extend subsidies that make health insurance affordable for millions of Americans, the key sticking point in the standoff.
But Trump has insisted he won’t negotiate with Democrats until the shutdown is over
