Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the head of the air traffic controllers’ union held a news conference at Philadelphia International Airport, where they highlighted the impact of the shutdown on air travel, reiterating points Duffy made at the Capitol on Thursday. 

“The stress level that our controllers are under right now I think is unacceptable,” Duffy said. Now I want to be clear, there’ll be a question about, is the system safe? And I’d say yes, it is safe, because if we don’t have enough controllers, if we have controllers that are more stressed and less able to do the job, we pay close attention to that, and we will reduce the capacity of airplanes taking off and landing, or we will cancel flights.” 

Duffy said that travelers might see increased delays and cancellations “because the Democrats won’t open the government back up.” He said that the number of daily delays caused by staffing shortages of controllers is typically 5%, but that figure has risen to as much as 53% during the shutdown.

Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, spoke after Duffy, and underscored his emphasis on controllers going without pay.

“We didn’t ask to be the focus of this shutdown, yet every day we’re carrying the full weight,” he said, noting that his members direct more than 45,000 aircraft carrying 3 million passengers per day. “They’re showing up every single day under immense stress, under uncertainty, having to stay focused on performing the day in and day out tasks. And every day that this shutdown drags on, with no clear [end] in sight, this affects their focus.”