An airplane takes off from Hollywood Burbank airport while operations resume one day after the airport has operated for hours without control tour due to staff shortages in the middle of the US government closure in Burbank, California, in the United States, October 7, 2025.
Daniel Cole | Reuters
Endowment issues in air traffic control delays thefts for a second consecutive day in many American airports while the government closed its seventh day, the Federal Aviation Administration said on Tuesday.
The FAA said that many flights were delayed at Nashville and Newark airports, among others. Flights arriving were organized up to 30 minutes in Newark due to endowment problems.
Nashville air traffic control is facing major endowment problems and will reduce operations later on Tuesday, the FAA said. Control of the approach will be taken up later by Memphis Center, he added.
The FAA reduces the number of flights arriving per hour in Chicago O’Hare, citing staff, with average delays of 41 minutes.
The FAA also reported endowment problems at the Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center.
Serious weather conditions also have an impact on flights across the country.
Some 13,000 air traffic controllers and approximately 50,000 agents of the transport security administration must always come to work during the government’s closure, but they are not paid. The controllers should receive a partial pay check on October 14 for the work carried out before closing.
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said on Monday that FAA had a slight increase because the controllers took sick leave and that air traffic staff had been reduced by 50% in certain regions since the start of closing last week.
“If we have no controllers, we will make sure that airspace is safe. So what we do is that we will slow traffic,” said Duffy on “Fox and Friends” of Fox News on Tuesday.
Flightaware, a flight tracking website, said more than 2,500 flights had been delayed on Tuesday, including around 200 in Nashville, or 20% of its flights, and nearly 500 flights to Chicago O’Hare, or more than 15% of flights.
In 2019, during a closure of 35 days, the number of absences by the TSA controllers and officers increased while workers lacked payroll checks, extending the waiting times in certain airports. The authorities were forced to slow down air traffic in New York, which has put pressure on the legislators to quickly end the deadlock.
