Flight delays persist as U.S. govt shutdown results in air visitors controller shortages

Flight delays continued at U.S. airports amid air visitors controller shortages as the federal government shutdown entered its second month, with Newark airport in New Jersey experiencing delays of two to a few hours.

New York City’s Emergency Management workplace stated on X on Sunday (November 2, 2025) that Newark delays typically ripple out to the area’s different airports.

Travelers flying to, from or by New York “ought to count on schedule adjustments, gate holds, and missed connections. Anyone flying at the moment ought to verify flight standing earlier than heading to the airport and count on longer waits,” the social media submit added.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Chicago O’Hare have been additionally seeing dozens of delays and one or two cancellations, together with main airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver and Miami, in response to FlightConscious.

As of Sunday night, FlightConscious stated there have been 4,295 delays and 557 cancellations of flights inside, into or out of the US, not all associated to controller shortages. In July, earlier than the shutdown, about 69% of flights have been on time and a pair of.5% have been cancelled.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been warning that travellers will begin to see extra flight disruptions the longer controllers go and not using a paycheck.

“We work time beyond regulation to ensure the system is protected. And we are going to sluggish visitors down, you will see delays, we’ll have flights cancelled to ensure the system is protected,” Duffy stated on Sunday on CBS’S “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” He additionally stated he doesn’t plan to fireplace air visitors controllers who do not present up for work.

“Again after they’re making selections to feed their households, I’m not going to fireplace air visitors controllers,” Duffy stated. “They want assist, they want cash, they want a paycheck. They do not should be fired.” Earlier in October, Duffy had warned air visitors controllers who had known as in sick as a substitute of working and not using a paycheck in the course of the shutdown risked being fired. Even a small variety of controllers not exhibiting up for work is inflicting issues as a result of the FAA has a important scarcity of them.

The Federal Aviation Administration stated Friday on X that almost 13,000 air visitors controllers have been working with out pay for weeks.

Staffing shortages can happen each in regional management centres that handle a number of airports and in particular person airport towers, however they do not all the time result in flight disruptions.

According to aviation analytics agency Cirium, flight knowledge confirmed sturdy on-time efficiency at most main US airports for the month of October regardless of remoted staffing issues all through the month.

Before the shutdown, the FAA was already coping with a long-standing scarcity of about 3,000 air visitors controllers.