Air traffic controller shortage could worsen in government shutdown, Buttigieg warns

A thousand air traffic controllers currently undergoing training by the Federal Aviation Administration would be furloughed if the increasingly likely government shutdown begins this weekend, said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

"After everything that we have been through, after all of the disruptions to air travel, especially the ones that we saw last year, we have finally seen cancellations and delays get back down to normal levels," Buttigieg said in a news conference Wednesday. "But a shutdown would stop all of that progress."

The threat of a government shutdown comes amid an already existing air traffic controller shortage.

Because of the "complexity of the hiring and training process," a shutdown even for a few days would prevent the agency from hitting staffing targets for the upcoming year, Buttigieg said. Along with furloughs, the FAA would be required to immediately halt training for any new controllers, he said.

Controllers already trained and on the job would continue working through a shutdown, without pay until its conclusion.

"I want you to imagine the pressure that a controller is already under every time they take their position at work. And then imagine the added stress of coming to that job from a household with a family that can no longer count on that paycheck," Buttigieg said. "That is the consequence of a shutdown."