NEW YORK/WASHINGTON - Hundreds of flights
were grounded or delayed at three New York-area and Philadelphia
airports as more air traffic controllers called in sick on
Friday in one of the most tangible signs yet of disruption
caused by a 35-day partial federal government shutdown.
The Federal Aviation Administration briefly issued a ground
stop for arriving flights at New York's LaGuardia Airport on
Friday before lifting it about an hour later.
Staff shortages
also delayed flights at Newark Liberty International Airport and
Philadelphia International Airport, the FAA said.
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been
furloughed or, as with some airport workers, required to work
without pay.
Some federal agencies have reported much higher
absence rates among workers as they face an indefinite wait for
their next paychecks.
The delays immediately became a new flashpoint in the
political standoff between the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of
Representatives and U.S.
President Donald Trump over the
shutdown, caused by a dispute about funding for Trump's plan to
increase barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Democrats in the House are demanding a reopening of the
government before any negotiations with Trump and his Republican
allies in Congress on border security.
The disruptions come the day after the U.S. Senate rejected
two shutdown-ending bills as hundreds of thousands of federal
workers missed a second paycheck on Friday.
Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, wrote on Twitter
that the shutdown "has already pushed hundreds of thousands of
Americans to the breaking point."
"Now it's pushing our airspace to the breaking point too,"
her message said, calling on Trump to "stop endangering the
safety, security and well-being of our nation."
The White House said Trump had been briefed on the delays
and was monitoring the situation at the airports.
STRESS AND UNCERTAINTY
John Hitt, a 51-year-old lawyer based in Boston, had
expected to fly to Milwaukee via LaGuardia on Friday morning to
visit his terminally ill aunt, but Delta Air Lines told
him his flight was delayed for at least two and a half hours.
"I've had to scratch the trip, eat the cost of a rental car
cancellation and now I'm starting over to figure out when I
could get there," Hitt said in a telephone interview. "With the
uncertainty now created by the shutdown, it's making me hesitant
to fly."
Delta said about 200 of its flights were delayed at
LaGuardia and other Northeast airports.
Unions representing federal workers said staff shortages
were the result of severe stress affecting employees who are not
being paid during the shutdown.
David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of
Government Employees, said Transportation Security officers are
"struggling mightily" to keep the American public safe.
"But doing so while worrying about eviction, the ability to
feed themselves and their families, to keep the heat on, to pay
bus fare to get to work, puts this safety at risk," he said in
his statement.
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight
Attendants-CWA, said in a statement that airport safety workers
"have been doing unbelievably heroic work even as they are
betrayed by the government that employs them."
At LaGuardia, the FAA said it was bringing in extra staff,
increasing spacing between aircraft and rerouting traffic, but
warned of delays for arriving flights of nearly 90 minutes.
About a third of incoming flights to LaGuardia were delayed as
of late Friday morning, according to the FlightAware tracking
service.
On Thursday, three major U.S. airlines - American Airlines
Group Inc, Southwest Airlines Co and JetBlue
Airways Corp - said the impact of the shutdown on their
business had so far been limited but was nearing a tipping
point.
The financial fortunes of airlines are closely tied to the
health of the economy. In addition, airlines with hubs in
Washington have said they are losing government business as a
result of the shutdown.