The shutdown has forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers to work without pay.
“After 31 days without pay, air traffic controllers are under immense stress and fatigue,” the FAA said late on Friday.
However, Halloween evening traffic was 20% lower than usual, which helped mitigate the effects of staffing shortages, airline officials said.
On Thursday, air traffic control staffing shortages snarled flights at Orlando, Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington DC, with FlightAware data showing 7,300 flights delayed and 1,250 canceled across the US.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association’s president, Nick Daniels, on Friday joined the airlines in calling for a continuing resolution.
The shutdown has exacerbated existing staffing shortages, threatening to cause widespread disruptions similar to those that helped end a 35-day government shutdown in 2019.
The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels, and many had been working mandatory overtime as well as six-day weeks even before the shutdown. »