U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy joined native and nationwide management of the Nationwide Air Site visitors Controllers Affiliation at LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday, calling for controllers’ pay to renew and warning of future delays amid the almost monthlong shutdown of the federal authorities.
“We all know what the issues are. Rent is due in a few days,” NATCA President Nick Daniels instructed reporters Tuesday. “We are the rope in this tug-of-war game.”
“We see the texts, we see the messages from our air traffic controllers, day in and day out, saying, ‘I’m taking a side job. How do I deal with child care? Can I bring my child to work today with me?’” Daniels mentioned. “It’s completely unacceptable, completely unfair and doesn’t put them in any kind of position to serve the American people.”
“As the pressure mounts, as the stress continues, our controllers are thinking about how to have a side job instead of about safety, instead of about the flying public,” he continued. “The only way to keep it safe is by slowing the number of flights in the air that they contend with.”
Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Each day Information
Nick Daniels, president of the Nationwide Air Site visitors Controllers Affiliation. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Each day Information)
Daniels mentioned an absence of pay solely provides to an already strained system.
“We’re 3,800 certified professional controllers short,” he mentioned of the nationwide drawback. “There were a multitude of delays before this shutdown.”
“We had hundreds of ‘ATC Zero’ events — where we have to shut down a facility — at hundreds of FAA facilities prior to the shutdown,” he added. “That’s in 2025 alone.”
LaGuardia Airport in Queens is pictured on Oct. 2, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Each day Information)
Talking alongside the union leaders, Duffy mentioned it stays protected to fly. As for the continued shutdown, he pointed the finger at Democrats, who President Trump has demanded reopen the federal government earlier than he’ll negotiate with them on well being care funding.
When requested if he had any message for Trump or the Democratic Celebration, Daniels, for his half, mentioned he would “leave politics to the politicians.” However he mentioned People ought to name “all their elected officials” and demand they “end the shutdown, end it today.”
“We have great men and women who run our facilities that, if they don’t have the right staffing levels, or they have distractions in towers, they will slow down the landings and departures in different airports across the country,” Duffy mentioned. “What that means for the American people is more delays or cancellations.”
Whereas many federal employees have been furloughed for the reason that authorities shutdown started on Oct. 1, the Federal Aviation Administration’s air visitors controllers are amongst those that have been deemed important and required to work with out pay.
The Trump administration has continued paying Division of Homeland Safety officers, together with air marshals, ICE deportation brokers, Secret Service brokers and Customs and Border Patrol officers, throughout the shutdown. The President has additionally mentioned he pays FBI brokers and army service members, although as of Tuesday the small print had been nonetheless in flux.
Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Each day Information
LaGuardia Airport, the place Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned delays may develop as air visitors controllers continued to work with out pay amid an ongoing authorities shutdown. (Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Each day Information)
In the meantime, Joe Segretto, an air visitors controller and NATCA consultant who’s labored on the New York TRACON facility in Nassau County for 18 years, mentioned he’s been having “tough conversations” together with his younger youngsters now that he’s not getting paid.
“You save money for a rainy day, but you do have things in life, like your mortgage is No. 1, you start defaulting on your mortgage,” Segretto mentioned when requested concerning the sacrifices controllers had been making. “Feeding your children, feeding yourself, paying for gas to get to work — if your spouse is at work, how do we pay for child care?”
“There are sacrifices everybody’s going to make,” he continued. “As the days go on, it gets worse and worse and worse.”
