Over 3,000 flights delayed amid staff shortage as US govt shutdown completes Day 7; Houston, Nashville, more affected

MORE than 3,000 flights in the United States have been delayed for the second straight day as staffing shortages widen amid the government shutdown, which completes a week today, October 8.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a notice that a number of airports are affected, including Houston, Nashville, Dallas, Chicago O'Hare and Newark.

Southwest Airlines has delayed more than 500 flights and American Airlines 400 flights, FlightAware data showed. A total of 225 flights were delayed at Nashville, and more than 570 flights at Chicago O'Hare.

The FAA has reduced the number of arriving flights per hour at Chicago O’Hare International Airport due to staffing shortages, resulting in average delays of about 41 minutes. Similar staffing issues have also been reported at the Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center.

The FAA also said that the flights that arrive at the Newark airport are being held for up to 30 minutes due to staffing shortages.

The FAA said Nashville’s air traffic control is grappling with severe staffing shortages and will scale back operations later on Tuesday. Control of approach operations will subsequently be handled by the Memphis Center, it added.

It said Washington Reagan might see new slowdowns due to low staffing on Tuesday. Also Read | Inside Donald Trump's 2025 US government shutdown: What’s different this time?

Not just the staffing issue amid the government shutdown is affecting airports and flight delays, but severe weather is also impacting flights across the country.

Both political parties are pointing fingers at each other for the impacts. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Democrats were to blame for the aviation slowdown, while California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said President Donald Trump was responsible.

To run the airport operations smoothly, some 13,000 air traffic controllers and about 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must be present for work during the government shutdown, but they are not being paid. 

Controllers are set to receive a partial paycheck on October 14 for work performed before the shutdown.

Meanwhile, thousands of federal workers who have been forced to take time off due to the United States government shutdown may not receive the guaranteed pay, according to a memo being circulated by the White House.

The decision not to compensate the federal workers for the time they didn’t work during the shutdown may impact hundreds of thousands of American citizens. The decision also reverses what has been longstanding policy for some 750,000 furloughed employees.