Overview

• More than 15,000 flights have been delayed since Monday, with the FAA imposing flow controls when facilities hit staffing shortfalls to preserve safety.
• The Hollywood Burbank control tower went unmanned for hours on Oct. 6, forcing remote operations and producing average delays of over two and a half hours.
• Recent shortages have hit major hubs including Reagan National, Newark, Orlando, Boston, Chicago O’Hare and Denver, and a Fort Worth en-route center reported a one-hour shortfall Thursday.
• About 13,000 controllers and tens of thousands of TSA officers are designated essential and must report to work without pay, while the controllers’ union urges members to keep working and warns that job actions are illegal.
• Lawmakers are watching the mounting travel disruption as a potential pressure point to resolve the funding standoff, recalling how controller absences hastened the end of the 2019 shutdown.