US could fire air traffic controllers who fail to work during shutdown

Spike in absences is causing significant air disruptions, says Transportation Secretary

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WASHINGTON - US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned on Oct 9 that the government could dismiss air traffic controllers who repeatedly fail to show up for work during the government shutdown, saying a spike in absences is causing significant air disruptions.

"If we have a continual small subset of controllers that don't show up to work, and they're the problem children... if we have some on our staff that aren't dedicated like we need, we're going to let them go," Mr Duffy said on Fox Business. "I can't have people not showing up for work." The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Oct 9 it was seeing some staffing issues for a fourth straight day as flights at Newark and routes in the New York area were being impacted.

There have been 19,000 flight delays since Oct 6 -including 3,300 on Oct 9 with thousands tied to the FAA slowing flights because of air traffic controller absences.