Planes line up on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport on November 10, 2025 in Latest York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The U.S. has been scrambling to rent more air traffic controllers for years. The longest-ever federal government shutdown might need made that even harder.
“We want more of them to come back into the occupation, and this shutdown goes to make that harder for us to perform that goal,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a press conference at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday, a day before Congress signed a bill to fund the federal government through January, ending the shutdown.
Air traffic controllers were required to work without receiving regular paychecks through the shutdown. They were paid partially on Friday, based on people accustomed to the matter, but through the shutdown some had taken second jobs to make ends meet, while the dearth of standard pay added to their stress, union and government officials and lawmakers have said.
The Federal Aviation Administration reported low-staffing thresholds were hit that that slowed aircraft across the country through the final days of the shutdown. President Donald Trump earlier this week threatened to dock air traffic controllers’ pay in the event that they didn’t go to work. On Friday, staffing levels were relatively strong across the U.S. and disruptions eased.
“It might probably’t make it seem like that is an amazing job because you are going to must cope with this on a regular basis,” said Tim Kiefer, who teaches air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.
Kiefer was an air traffic controller for greater than twenty years before he retired. He said shutdowns or the specter of them were common during his profession. “You might see people determine to do other things and say, ‘They didn’t receives a commission; they were stuck in the course of a partisan dispute,'” he said.
5 million passengers
The shortage of air traffic controllers delayed or canceled hundreds flights through the shutdown, affecting the travel plans of greater than 5 million people, based on Airlines for America, an industry group that features American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and others.
But even with partial pay hitting bank accounts, the staffing crisis that frequently upends travel is about to proceed.
A government tally last 12 months showed the U.S. was short 3,903 fully certified air traffic controllers of a goal of 14,633. Shortages have been particularly severe at busy facilities like those where controllers guide planes out and in of airports within the congested Latest York area, adding to flight disruptions and frustrating airline executives and customers.
Meanwhile, retirements picked up within the shutdown, with 15 to twenty people retiring per day, down from a usual rate of 4 a day, Duffy said Tuesday. Controllers are required to retire at age 56 but can achieve this earlier with advantages depending on years on the job.
Staffing was already thin before the shutdown began on Oct. 1, and lots of controllers were working six-day workweeks. By mid-November, as air traffic controllers missed two full paychecks and the shutdown passed the one-month mark, it approached crisis levels.
Greater than 10% of U.S. departures were canceled last Sunday as bad weather combined with air traffic controller shortfalls at facilities across the country. That was the very best rate since January, based on aviation-data firm Cirium.
Hours after those cancellations spiked on Sunday, the Senate advanced a preliminary deal that led to the vote ending the shutdown this week.
The Federal Aviation Administration in early November ordered airlines to chop 4% of flights from their domestic schedules at 40 major airports, blaming safety risks they found due to an increased strain on air traffic controllers. Cuts were set to ramp as much as 10% on Friday, if the shutdown didn’t end. Cancellations, nevertheless, improved dramatically through the week and on Friday morning, just 2% of U.S. departures were canceled, based on Cirium.
The FAA brought its mandated cuts down from 6% to three% starting on Saturday, saying it would monitor system performance throughout the weekend.
The disruptions were much like those on days with severe storms, but were more widespread across the U.S.
Tens of millions in lost revenue
The last-minute cuts were a headache for the industry, where airlines from top-moneymaker Delta to struggling carrier Spirt had already lowered their outlooks for the 12 months after an oversupply of flights and weaker-than-expected demand earlier this 12 months. Airlines have not yet quantified the damage from the shutdown, but Bank of America estimated a $150 million to $200 million operating income hit for large network airlines and lower than $100 million for other carriers.
Travelers walk through the terminal at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, greater than a month into the continuing U.S. government shutdown, in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., Nov. 11, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters
Airline executives, exasperated by the recent disruptions, are actually pushing Congress to be certain controllers are paid in the following shutdown.
“Prior to now week, we saw a crescendo effect as air traffic control staffing shortages led to massive and unpredictable amounts of delays and cancellations across the industry — and that was on top of a series of FAA-mandated schedule reductions,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom and the carrier’s chief operating officer, David Seymour, said in a note to employees on Thursday, a day after the House approved a short-term funding bill. “While we each have been on this industry for a very long time, only just a few other events come to mind after we take into consideration this level of disruption.”
It might have been worse. This a part of the autumn travel demand is comparatively light, but Thanksgiving was fast approaching when Congress ended the shutdown, concerning airline executives.
“This shutdown put tremendous strain on our aviation system and caused severe inconvenience for the thousands and thousands of Americans who depend upon it,” United said in a press release. “It needs to be obvious to everyone that policy debates, nevertheless urgent, should never put air travel in danger, and we urge Congress to make sure that the FAA and [Transportation Security Administration’s] funding is protected within the event of any future lapse in federal appropriations.”
‘Political football’
It wasn’t the primary time a government closure has put the aviation industry under strain. The 2018-2019 shutdown, then the longest in U.S. history, ended just hours after controller shortages snarled travel within the Latest York City area.
Some airline executives told CNBC that they were frustrated by this most up-to-date shutdown and last-minute schedule changes, which ended up being greater than anticipated. One, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the press, said “we were the pawns” within the shutdown.
The very best solution to prevent such disruptions is “to make sure those staff, the following time this happens because it would occur, receives a commission,” Bastian said. “Who could disagree with that?”
The airline industry is urging Congress for laws that might make use of funds generated by airplane ticket taxes to make sure air traffic controllers and other essential industry staff like airport screeners and Customs agents are paid.
“You do not hold the American public hostage over a political fight like that,” Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu, the previous governor of Latest Hampshire, said in a virtual press conference Wednesday, shortly before the House passed the funding bill.
Travelers check their flight status at Dulles International airport because the nation’s air travel system begins to return to normal, because the U.S. government opens back up following the longest shutdown in U.S. history, in Dulles, Virginia, U.S. Nov. 13, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Next Wednesday, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who chairs the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space and Innovation, will hold a hearing on the shutdown’s impact on aviation. Moran this 12 months pushed for laws that might let the FAA use the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which is funded by taxes on airplane tickets and fuel, to cover expenses if the federal government shuts down.
“The federal government shutdown has severely impacted our already fragile aviation industry, and recovering from its effects will take time,” he said in a release this week. “It’s vital that we address the damage done and have a look at the long-term effects of the shutdown.”
Lawmakers earlier this 12 months approved $12.5 billion to enhance air traffic control, though the industry said it needs billions more to modernize the system within the U.S.
The fatal collision of an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., in January also made hiring controllers more urgent, especially at congested facilities.
A few month after the crash, Duffy announced the country’s air traffic controller academy would raise pay for college kids, and he authorized more universities to show the same curriculum to assist ease the shortage. The academy in Oklahoma City also stayed open, a unique tactic than within the 2018-2019 shutdown.
But those aren’t immediate fixes. It takes years for controllers to be fully trained to work at among the more complex facilities, and applicants to the academy could be no older than 30.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated a comparison to this month’s flight cancellations.
