Hollywood Burbank Airport: Government shutdown leads to shortage of air traffic controllers

Shutdown leads to controller shortage

The Hollywood Burbank Airport had no air traffic controllers for hours on Monday, leading to flight delays and cancellations.

BURBANK, Calif. - Due to the government shutdown, no air traffic controllers were working at Hollywood Burbank Airport for several hours on Monday night. Authorities said there were no controllers on duty in the tower from 4:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. 

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, officials were working to bring in staff as soon as possible. It's unclear if additional staff were brought in. Duties were reportedly handed off to Southern California TRACON, a departure team based in San Diego, which coordinated with pilots arriving and departing from Burbank.

Several flights were canceled and/or delayed. Around 5 p.m., the FAA website stated that the average flight delay was about two hours and 30 minutes. 

For real-time flight impacts for every U.S. airport due to staffing, as well as weather or other factors, visit fly.faa.gov.

Impact of the shutdown 

On Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke about how the government shutdown is putting more stress on air traffic controllers who already have an extremely stressful job. He said there's been an increase in staff shortages across the system. When that happens, the FAA slows traffic at some airports for safety reasons. 

Controllers are expected to continue working without a paycheck, Duffy said.

He added that there's already been a small uptick in controllers calling out sick in a few places. If that gets worse as the shutdown drags on, the FAA could be forced to reduce the number of takeoffs and landings, which would create delays and possibly cancellations.

Hollywood Burbank Airport 

He also said the shutdown is threatening a program that small communities rely on to help subsidize airline service.

"Is our airspace unsafe? No, if we think there's issues in the airspace, we will shut it down. We will close it down, we will delay. But again, it's creating a ripple effect for our controllers.
Not only that, many of you know what Essential Air Service is, so Essential Air Service provides airline services to communities that normally would not get it. Right, so we give some subsidies
to the federal government that in small communities to give them service from the airlines. That money runs out this Sunday. So there's many small communities across the country that will
no longer have the resources to make sure they have air service in their community," Duffy said during a press conference. 

In addition to dealing with the shutdown, air controllers are working on equipment from the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s, Duffy added. 

What's next:

Aviation authorities will continue to monitor the situation at airports nationwide as the shutdown continues.