Air Traffic Controllers Reject Credit for Ending the Last Shutdown
Source: New York Times
Oct. 12, 2025, 5:01 a.m. ET
The political debate around the government shutdown has elevated one group of federal workers above others: air traffic controllers.
Because of their role in protecting public safety, controllers are required to work through a shutdown without pay, adding stress to a workplace with severe staffing shortages and raising fears that workers calling in sick could cause the national airspace to fall into disarray.
Controllers missing work was widely cited as the reason the last shutdown came to an end in 2019. But that assumption was overblown, according to controllers, aviation safety experts and congressional aides from both parties, some of whom said that the Trump administration and its allies were fanning fears of a controller walkout amid the current shutdown to pressure lawmakers into making a deal to end it.
“That narrative is false,” said Nick Daniels, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. He argued that staffing dips in 2019 and last week, which caused the F.A.A. to slow air traffic at some major airports, were troubling but normal. “The delays before the shutdown were longer than the delays the last three days,” Mr. Daniels said, adding: “We shouldn’t be the rope in this tug of war.”
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/us/politics/air-traffic-controllers-shutdown.html
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