Air traffic controllers union warns of growing delays amid government shutdown

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy joined local and national leadership of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association at LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday, calling for controllers’ pay to resume and warning of future delays amid the nearly monthlong shutdown of the federal government.

“We all know what the issues are. Rent is due in a few days,” NATCA President Nick Daniels told reporters Tuesday. “We are the rope in this tug-of-war game.”

“We see the texts, we see the messages from our air traffic controllers, day in and day out, saying, ‘I’m taking a side job. How do I deal with childcare? Can I bring my child to work today with me?’” Daniels said. “It’s completely unacceptable, completely unfair and doesn’t put them in any kind of position to serve the American people.”

“As the pressure mounts, as the stress continues, our controllers are thinking about how to have a side job instead of about safety, instead of about the flying public,” he continued. “The only way to keep it safe is by slowing the number of flights in the air that they contend with.”

As previously reported by the Daily News, air traffic controller shortages and outdated equipment have already played havoc with regional air travel this year.

Daniels said a lack of pay only added to an already strained system.

“We’re 3,800 certified professional controllers short,” he said of the nationwide problem. “There were a multitude of delays before this shutdown.”

“We had hundreds of ‘ATC Zero’ events — where we have to shut down a facility — at hundreds of FAA facilities prior to the shutdown,” he added. “That’s in 2025 alone.”

Speaking alongside the union leaders, Duffy said it remains safe to fly. As for the ongoing shutdown, he pointed the finger at Democrats, who President Trump has demanded reopen the government before he’ll negotiate with them on healthcare funding.

When asked if he had any message for Trump or the Democratic Party, Daniels, for his part, said he would “leave politics to the politicians.” But he said Americans should call “all their elected officials” and demand they “end the shutdown, end it today.”

“We have great men and women who run our facilities that, if they don’t have the right staffing levels, or they have distractions in towers, they will slow down the landings and departures in different airports across the country,” Duffy said. “What that means for the American people is more delays or cancellations.”

While many federal workers have been furloughed since the government shutdown began on Oct. 1, the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic controllers are among those who have been deemed essential and required to work without pay.

The Trump administration has continued paying Department of Homeland Security officers, including air marshals, ICE deportation agents, Secret Service agents, and Customs and Border Patrol officers, during the shutdown. The President has also said he will pay FBI agents and military service members, though as of Tuesday the details were still in flux.

Meanwhile, Joe Segretto, an air traffic controller and NATCA representative who’s worked at the New York TRACON facility in Nassau County for 18 years, said he’s been having “tough conversations” with his young children now that he’s not getting paid.

“You save money for a rainy day, but you do have things in life, like your mortgage is number one, you start defaulting on your mortgage,” Segretto said when asked about the sacrifices controllers were making. “Feeding your children, feeding yourself, paying for gas to get to work — if your spouse is at work, how do we pay for childcare?”

“There are sacrifices everybody’s going to make,” he continued. “As the days go on, it gets worse and worse and worse.”