Sadiq S BhatWashington, DC — Airports across the US are feeling the strain as the government shutdown stretches into its second week, grounding patience and fraying tempers.
On Monday, the effect was visible in American skies. One of the worst disruptions unfolded at California's Hollywood Burbank Airport, where the control tower went dark at 4:15 pm [local time].
"From 4:15 pm to 10 pm Monday, there were no air traffic controllers in the Burbank tower," the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.
Operations were instead managed remotely by Southern California TRACON, an approach and departure team based in San Diego. For hours, pilots followed the self-regulating procedures. At one point, delays stretched beyond two and a half hours.
The FAA's public operations plan showed huge "staffing triggers" at towers in Burbank, Phoenix, and Denver.
Twelve FAA facilities across the US have been impacted in the last 12 hours, with staffing shortages reported at air traffic control centres that manage traffic around the country in places like Newark, Jacksonville, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Indianapolis.
In Denver and Newark, controllers were forced to impose "ground stops", temporary halts imposed on all departures until there were enough people to guide incoming flights.
Both airports are major United Airlines hubs, and the disruptions quickly spread through the airline's nationwide network.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, speaking at a news conference after visiting controllers in Newark, said the pressure on the workforce was mounting.
"So now what they think about as they’re controlling our airspace is, 'How am I going to pay my mortgage? How do I make my car payment?'" he said. "Do I think they’re more stressed right now in our towers? Yes. Is our airspace unsafe? No."
Duffy said the administration would "do what is necessary to keep the airspace safe" but acknowledged the limits of endurance.
"If we have additional sick calls, we will reduce the flow consistent with a rate that’s safe for the American people," he said, effectively foreshadowing more delays.
He spoke bluntly about the toll of unpaid labour.
"If someone has to take sick leave to drive Uber to make the difference, those are decisions they’re going to make themselves,” he said.
"I don’t want them finding a second job to pay the bills. I want them to get paid for the work they’re doing today, keeping our planes in the air."
Fatigue and frustration
The impact of showdown loomed large at White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's media interaction on Monday, in which she blamed the Democrats for Trump's unprecedented decision to furlough federal workers during the government shutdown.
During a briefing, Leavitt was asked about Trump's comments blaming Democrats for the sweeping layoffs he's threatened as a result of the government shutdown.
"As I've said repeatedly, this conversation about redundancies would not be happening right now if the Democrats had not voted to shut the government down," Leavitt said, noting the shutdown is happening at a time when the US has a national debt of $37 trillion.
The shutdown has furloughed about 750,000 federal workers, slowed student aid, food safety checks, and closed parks and museums. Each week costs the US economy anything between an estimated $7–15 billion, costing the travel sector alone $1 billion per week.
According to the US Department of Transportation's shutdown contingency plan, more than 11,000 FAA employees, about a quarter of the agency’s workforce, have been furloughed due to the ongoing government shutdown.
Inside the air traffic towers, the mood is taut.
Controllers are balancing the responsibility of directing thousands of flights a day with the anxiety of missed paychecks.
They must show up, but the strain is visible in the sick-out numbers and audible in the clipped voices of those guiding planes through crowded skies.
Yesterday at Burbank, the shutdown's effect was not abstract. With no one in the tower, the runways stood under silent control, radio chatter replaced by pilots managing takeoffs and landings among themselves.
For passengers, it was another chaotic evening. Screens at terminals in many US airports are filled with the same word: "Delayed."
Inside the concourse, stranded families are leaning on luggage, phones pressed to ears, waiting for updates.
Risk of burnout
The scene echoed an earlier crisis. In January 2019, during another government shutdown, the system nearly broke. Several air traffic controllers stayed home on the same day, forcing the temporary closure of New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
Within hours, Trump, then in his first term, agreed to sign a short-term spending bill, ending the 35-day shutdown.
The lesson from that episode was clear: the aviation system, finely tuned and interdependent, cannot function without its people.
The current shutdown has again laid that bare.
Controllers continue to guide aircraft across the continental US, but each passing day without pay deepens the risk of burnout.
The FAA insists the US airspace remains safe. Yet as control towers run on thin staffing, and voices crack with fatigue, the line between control and chaos narrows.
For the controllers who have returned to work at Burbank, it began with the same question Duffy described: how to keep America's skies safe and make the planes take off and land while waiting for a pay cheque — that has yet to land.
