Air traffic controllers planned to hand out leaflets at 22 airports across the U.S. on Tuesday, coinciding with missing their first full paycheck due to the federal government shutdown.
"No one should be under the illusion that it's business as usual for aviation safety during the shutdown," the leaflet read. "Every day the shutdown continues, the negative consequences to the National Airspace System and its employees are compounding."
As essential employees, air traffic controllers work during federal government shutdowns, but they don't get paid until the shutdown is over. Controllers received partial paychecks on Oct. 14 for the portion of that pay period that came before the shutdown that began on Oct. 1.
The previous government shutdown, which lingered for 35 days in 2018-19, ended on the day that a surge in work absences by air traffic controllers in Jacksonville and the Washington, D.C. area reverberated across U.S. airspace.
At a press conference alongside Transportation Department secretary Sean Duffy at New York LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday, Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), said controllers won't walk off the job.
"There will be no concerted effort for air traffic controllers to in any way have a job action. It is illegal for us to do such a thing," he said.
But Daniels did emphasize that many controllers are now distracted by the financial stress of not getting paid, with some having to turn to side gigs, while others make tough decisions about matters such as childcare.
"The message is simple. End the shutdown today," Daniels said. "There is no excuse that these hardworking men and women are showing up every day to this job and to not ever know when they are going to get paid again."
Thus far, the shutdown has not led to systemwide flight delays, nor to abnormal numbers of cancellations.
But Duffy said that staffing shortages posed problems in some airports, especially Atlanta and Los Angeles, over the weekend. He said that this year approximately 5% of FAA-imposed delays have been caused by staffing shortfalls. But staffing triggered 24% of delays on Monday and 44% on Sunday.