A 75-minute ground stop was issued at Newark Liberty International Airport on Wednesday due to “staffing issues” spurred by the federal government shutdown.
Departing flights were grounded from 3 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. at the New Jersey airport and flights were delayed 40 minutes after the ground stop ended, NBC 4 New York first reported . Roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers missed their first full paychecks on Tuesday, placing strain on an already understaffed Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has been stretched thin for decades, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three other FAA air traffic advisories were issued Wednesday due to insufficient staffing, including Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control Area C, the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) Area D and the Indianapolis ARTCC Area 5, Forbes reported. Philadelphia’s approach control oversees sequencing and separation of planes at Newark, New York’s control center controls flights enroute over parts of Pennsylvania, and Indianapolis’ runs flights over Midwestern states.
The FAA also flagged a potential ground stop Wednesday at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York after 4 p.m., and until 10 p.m. for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C.
“A lot of people are concerned about safety and security, so I’m certainly worried about that, and want to make sure that we’re taking all the steps that we can to be able to tackle that,” Democratic New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim told the Daily Caller News Foundation, regarding the ground stop at his state’s largest airport. “That’s what I’m worried about, making sure that they [air traffic controllers] can get paid and making sure that they don’t have to be the collateral damage in this shutdown.”
Almost all Senate Democrats, including Kim, have voted to block a GOP-backed bipartisan funding measure to end the shutdown a total of 13 times.
In early October, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA is operating 3,000 employees short. Duffy told Fox News on Sunday that the “controllers are wearing thin.”
“Just yesterday we had 22 staffing triggers. That’s one of the highest that we’ve seen in the system since the shutdown began, and that’s a sign that the controllers are wearing thin. And again, they’re taking second jobs. They’re out there looking, ‘Can I drive Uber? Can I find another source of income?’” Duffy said on Fox News Sunday. “What I see coming forward as we get to Monday, tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, is you’re going to see more staffing shortages in towers, which means you’re going to see more delays, more cancellations.”
Throughout the shutdown, second jobs have become commonplace for controllers. Controllers have begun waiting tables, grocery shopping for Instacart, delivering food for DoorDash and tutoring on weekends to make ends meet, according to Reuters.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday recognized the strain controllers are feeling amid the shutdown and blamed President Donald Trump for holding back “permission” for Republicans to negotiate with Democrats on a funding measure to end the shutdown.
“Donald Trump needs to get serious, give permission to [House Speaker] Mike Johnson and [Senate Majority Leader] John Thune to sit down and negotiate with Democrats. That’s all it takes,” Jeffries told reporters Wednesday. “I’m very confident in the ability of hard working air traffic controllers, TSA agents and others who are continuing to do their job with the highest degree of professionalism.”
Caden Olson contributed to this report.
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