NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The FAA says there are delas at LaGuardia, Newark, and Philadelphia Airports due to staffing shortages at air traffic control. This comes with the continuing government shutdown.
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The FAA says LaGuardia is seeing 21 percent of outbound flights delayed, and 17 percent of inbound flights delayed with one hour delays at Newark. By late Friday morning, there were already 300 flights affected a LaGuardia.
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There's been a slight increase in sick leave at two air traffic facilities affecting New York and Florida, the FAA said.
Trish Gilbert is with the Air Traffic Controllers union, and says the system is too strained.
"They're not at the actual airports. I'm told that the absences are at Washington Center which is in Leesberg, Virginia, which encompasses the whole entire east coast. So we're concerned about if they're fit for duty, which is why they're not there. The system is too strained," she said.
She said the delays are 'absolutely' the result of the shutdown.
"We predicted that you cannot continue to operate a system this complex for this long without the support structure of the people that are furloughed," she said.
Gilbert said controllers have to be 'fit for duty' to do their jobs safely.
"They have to be medically fit for duty, they have to not be fatigued. They can't even take pseudophed or Nyquil and report for duty. So if the stress is getting to them, if they're ill or not sleeping, it's their responsibility to not plug in and try and separate air traffic," she said, "It's going to affect air traffic."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says delays at East Coast airports amid a partial federal government shutdown are another symptom of the "federal madness" caused by Trump.
The Democrat says the delays are hurting the economy and impacting airport safety and security. His comments came at an unrelated event in Manhattan Friday morning.
Earlier in the day Cuomo wrote to Trump demanding an end to the shutdown, saying it could become a national security issue.
The letter was sent shortly before the FAA announced LaGuardia Airport in New York and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey were both experiencing delays in takeoffs due to staffing problems at two air traffic control facilities.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter on Friday morning, as the situation developed.
"In my 1st speech on the Floor, I warned about shutdown stress on NYC air traffic control," she wrote, "Now LaGuardia is grounded."