Transportation chief warns of travel impacts amid shutdown

(NewsNation) — U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned of more flight delays and cancellations resulting from the government shutdown during a news conference at Philadelphia International Airport on Friday.

During the news conference, Duffy highlighted the strain on air traffic controllers, who are considered essential workers and must work without pay during the shutdown. Until Congress ends the shutdown, about 13,000 air traffic controllers and more than 61,000 TSA employees will remain on the job without pay.

“As I’ve travelled around to talk to the controllers, there is great frustration, there is anxiety, because as any one of you, you look at the expectation at that a paycheck comes in and then you plan for that,” Duffy said. “The stress level that are controllers are under right now, I think it unacceptable.”

This shutdown comes at a time when there is a shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers, and shortages at the Federal Aviation Administration and the TSA. With the holidays around the corner, Duffy stressed that the current system is safe, but will travelers will have to be patient.

“If we don’t have enough controllers, if we have controllers that are more stressed and less able to do the job, we pay close attention to that and we will reduce the capacity of airplanes taking off and landing or we will cancel flights,” Duffy said. “I’m less concerned about you getting there on time, I want you to be safe.”

Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, says controllers are responsible for moving more than 45,000 aircraft, three million passengers and tons of cargo each day. Many controllers begun taking on additional jobs to pay their bills.

“We didn’t ask to be the focus of this shutdown, yet everyday we are carrying the full weight,” Daniels said

Duffy and the Trump administration continue to claim that Democrats in Congress are preventing the shutdown from ending, a claim Democratic lawmakers dispute. Daniels insists it just needs to end.

“Air traffic controllers, we didn’t start a shutdown. We don’t end a shutdown, our elected officials do,” Daniels said. “And our message is simple. End the shutdown today.”