BySuzanne Rowan Kelleher,
Forbes Staff.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued three ground stops at major U.S. airports Thursday evening due to staffing shortages—and unpaid air traffic controllers have told Forbes the volume of sick calls “will only get bigger” the longer the country’s second-longest government shutdown drags on.
An FAA air traffic control advisory issued just after 11:30 a.m. EDT on Friday noted “staffing triggers”—indicating inadequate personnel levels–at the control tower at Newark Liberty International Airport and the Houston Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility, which is responsible for guiding planes in and out of Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby airports.
On Thursday afternoon and evening, ground delays at three major U.S. airports—Newark, New York’s LaGuardia and Houston’s Bush—were attributed to staffing issues.
