Some U.S. airspace might be closed if shutdown continues, Duffy says

The U.S. Department of Transportation may need to close "certain parts of the airspace" if the longest government shutdown on record continues into next week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday.

"You will see mass flight delays, you'll see mass cancellations," Duffy said at a press conference in Washington, D.C. "And you may see us close certain parts of the airspace because we just cannot manage it, because we don't have the air traffic controllers."

He added, "We will restrict the airspace when we feel it's not safe."

Throughout the 35-day federal shutdown, set to become the longest in U.S. history, Duffy has maintained that commercial air travel remains safe. The tradeoff is that passengers are experiencing more flight delays as officials slow flight traffic based on staffing levels to ensure that the national airspace remains well-monitored, Duffy has said at earlier press conferences.

More than 10,000 flights within, into or out of the U.S. experienced delays last weekend, while an additional 4,700 trips were delayed on Monday, according to tracking service FlightAware.

Duffy said on social media on Wednesday that 46% of the previous day's flight delays were due to staffing issues in air traffic control towers. Ordinarily, personnel issues account for roughly 5% of such delays, according to aviation data.

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights following the 9/11 terror attacks for national security reasons, while hurricanes and other weather emergencies can also lead to flight restrictions. But closing parts of the nation's airspace because of staffing issues would be unprecedented, according to aviation industry experts.

"In this particular instance, Duffy is talking about staffing. He knows the strain and stress this is taking on air traffic controllers," Sheldon Jacobson, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an expert on aviation security, told CBS News.

Closing even a portion of the nation's vast airspace would be a major step and likely impact travel nationwide, he added. The system operates on a so-called hub-and-spoke model in which passengers using regional airports can connect with major airports to travel around the U.S.

If the airspace around New York were to close, for example, it could affect passengers in multiple cities, according to Jacobson.

"For us to take such draconian steps to shut it down in sectors of the country would be unprecedented," he said. "If you shut down the New York area, you shut down a lot of the country because of the interconnectivity of the hub-and-spoke system."

With air traffic controllers working without pay during the shutdown, more than usual are calling in sick, Duffy has said. He has said he is discouraging them from taking on side gigs like delivering for Uber or DoorDash to make ends meet during the funding lapse, given the level of focus that their job requires.

"The longer this goes on, every day, these hardworking Americans have bills they have to pay, and they're being forced to make decisions and choices," Duffy said Tuesday. "As every day goes by, I think the problem is going to only get worse. Not better."

At an Oct. 28 news conference at LaGuardia Airport in New York, National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels emphasized that his organization's members are under mounting financial pressures.

"Air traffic controllers have to have 100% of focus 100% of the time," he said. "And I'm watching air traffic controllers going to work. I'm getting the stories. They're worried about paying for medicine for their daughter. I got a message from a controller that said, 'I'm running out of money. And if she doesn't get the medicine she needs, she dies. That's the end.'"

The U.S. Travel Association on Monday urged congressional leaders to end the shutdown, which the industry trade group said could disrupt passengers during the busy Thanksgiving holiday. In 2024, 20 million passengers took to the skies over that week.

"A shutdown places extraordinary strain on federal personnel who are essential to keeping America moving — from Transportation Security Administration officers to air traffic controllers, who are forced to work without pay," the group said in a Nov. 3 letter. "When staffing shortages worsen, airport wait times grow longer and flight delays and cancellations become more frequent, threatening to derail family travel plans across the country."