Tuesday marks the first day that air traffic controllers don’t get paid due to the government shutdown, which is reaching its fourth week.
Outside LAX, a group of air traffic controllers handed out leaflets to passengers, urging them to contact their representatives in hopes of ending the government shutdown.
“We have QR codes that we can scan to help people go and get engaged to write their members of Congress and ask them to end this shutdown,” James Squire, one of the controllers, told KNX News’ Karen Adams. “We're going to work six days a week, often up to 10-hour shifts every single time to work without a paycheck.”
Squire and Mike Flores, another controller passing out leaflets, said the shutdown is just adding stress to an already stressful job.
“It's something we shouldn't have to worry about,” Flores said. “We should be able to come to work, do our job, and you expect to get paid a couple of weeks later. That would relieve a lot of the already complex stressors of day-to-day life.”
Squire added that travelers will continue to see delays because “it's not going to be safe to push as many airplanes in and out as they could normally.”
“There are going to be just less planes going right in order to keep it safe,” he said. “We have less controllers. It means less airspace is being watched right, so that's how they manage that safety.”
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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, however, told reporters in New York that this is not affecting the safety of air travel.
“If we have issues, we will slow it down,” he said. “We will stop it. So, I don’t want anyone to think that it’s not safe. It’s just that you may not be traveling on the schedule that you anticipated because of this government shutdown.”
He added that air traffic controller delays and cancellations are changing day by day and airport by airport.
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