The Federal Aviation Administration warned that California’s Hollywood Burbank Airport will not have any air traffic controllers manning the towers for several hours Monday evening as the government shutdown forces scores of airport staff to work without pay.
The mass shortage was set to start at 4:15 p.m. until around 10 p.m. local time, ABC News reported.
The FAA assured that it was trying to pull in additional staff sooner than 10 p.m., but couldn’t guarantee the gap would be filled in time.
The Post reached out to the FAA for confirmation, but received an automatic reply that the press office was shut down due to the “lapse in funding” shuttering non-exempt activities.
Air traffic controllers at the airport told ABC 7 that they would be leaving promptly at 4:15 p.m. and that unstaffed tower would be run by the Southern California TRACON, an approach and departure team based in San Diego.
The TRACON team would talk to the pilots manning all active flights at the airport.
It’s unclear to what extent the Hollywood Burbank Airport will be impacted by the staffing shortages, and if it will persist later this week.
Many expected delays in air travel to follow the government shutdown, which continued into its sixth day Monday after a failed Senate vote.
While the government is shut down, many airport workers including air traffic controllers work without pay.
During the last government shutdown, which stretched for 35 days and through the New Year in 2018, air traffic controllers countrywide sued the government to try and get their paychecks.
Meanwhile, other workers including security screeners called out sick for weeks on end.
This time around, the TSA and the FAA were both already stuck in a staffing shortage nightmare. The FAA has specifically been short roughly 3,000 air traffic controllers for more than six months.
Aviation groups also highlighted in a letter to US Senate and House leaders that the shutdown delays much-needed aircraft safety inspections, maintenance, and repairs.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom pinned the blame for the Burbank airport’s shortage on President Trump.
“Thanks, @realDonaldTrump! Burbank Airport has ZERO air traffic controllers from 4:15pm to 10pm today because of YOUR government shutdown,” he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, a majority of Democratic senators on Monday rejected a fifth attempt by Republicans to pass a stopgap funding bill that would end the government shutdown.
Read the full article here
