Flight disruptions will worsen significantly if the federal government doesn’t reopen, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday.
Duffy’s comments came the week after President Donald Trump’s Federal Aviation Administration ordered U.S. airlines to cut flights to maintain safety as the federal government shutdown dragged on and became the longest in U.S. history.
On Monday, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to reopen the government, but the bill still needs to pass the House. The FAA-mandated flight cuts reached 6% Tuesday and are scheduled to continue to increase.
Air traffic controllers have been working without pay and staffing issues around the country have led to flight delays throughout the shutdown, which began Oct. 1.
Some controllers are logging mandatory overtime and working as much as 10 hours a day, six days a week, according to their union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
At the airport Tuesday, Duffy said he was hopeful the U.S. House would vote to reopen the government.
But flight disruptions would worsen if the government doesn’t reopen, Duffy said.
“If the House doesn’t pass this bill, I think you’re gonna look at Saturday, Sunday and Monday as tiddlywinks,” he said.
Duffy said that some airlines may ground their planes if the situation deteriorates further.
“You may find airlines that stop flying. Full stop,” Duffy said. A spokesperson for the airline trade association Airlines for America did not immediately respond to a question about whether U.S. airlines were considering ceasing flights entirely.
On Monday, the group issued a statement warning it will take time for airlines to build their capacity back up after the cuts.
“It will take time, and there will be residual effects for days,” the group said.
“With the Thanksgiving travel period beginning next week and the busy shipping season around the corner, the time to act is now to help mitigate any further impacts to Americans.”
The FAA mandate last week came as Republicans tried to ramp up pressure on Democrats to end the shutdown.
Eight U.S. senators, including Dick Durbin of Illinois, have joined a GOP-backed plan to reopen the government through the end of January. That plan did not guarantee an extension of health care subsidies, angering progressive Democrats, including some in Illinois.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, for one, blasted the plan on social media. “This is not a deal — it’s an empty promise,” Pritzker said on X. “Trump and his Republican Congress are making health care more expensive for the middle class and ending it for working families.”
On Tuesday, 5% of flights departing O’Hare and 3% of flights departing Midway were canceled, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks flight disruptions. All in all, 145 flights flying into or out of both airports were canceled as of late Tuesday afternoon, according to FlightAware. More than 300 were delayed.
Duffy said Tuesday that the FAA mandate was about safety, not politics.
At O’Hare, Duffy said air traffic controllers would get 70% of their pay within a day or two of the government reopening, with the rest of their payment to follow about a week later.
Regarding air traffic controllers who may have called out sick “on a continual basis” throughout the shutdown including before missing a paycheck, Duffy said: “I’m concerned about those controllers. I’m concerned about their dedication. I’m concerned about their patriotism.”
Air traffic controllers have now received their second zero-dollar paycheck, NATCA has said.
The union did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday regarding Duffy’s comments. It has previously warned workers against taking part in any collective job actions.
“Even as they go without pay during this record-long government shutdown. America’s air traffic controllers remain steadfast in their commitment to ensuring the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System,” the union previously said.
