Air travel across the United States continued to spiral into chaos Sunday as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that cancellations and delays would worsen amid the prolonged government shutdown, now stretching into its second month.
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Duffy said the administration’s top priority remained passenger safety, even if that meant grounding planes and slowing air traffic nationwide.
“We will delay, we will cancel, any kind of flight across the national airspace to make sure people are safe,” he said.
He cautioned that when air traffic controllers are forced to do double duty, the entire system becomes vulnerable.
“There is a level of risk that gets injected into the system when we have a controller that’s doing two jobs instead of one.”
Duffy made clear that officials would not hesitate to halt air travel if safety could not be guaranteed.
“We don’t want crashes, we want people to go safely,” he said, stressing that flight operations would be paused or slowed if conditions warranted.
“We will slow and stop traffic if we don’t think we can manage it in a way that keeps people safe.”
The Transportation Secretary also warned that Americans should brace for worsening disruptions if the shutdown lingers.
“If the government doesn’t open in the next week or two, we’ll look back as these were the good days, not the bad days,” he said grimly.
By Sunday afternoon, major airports were reporting mounting delays tied to staffing shortages among unpaid air traffic controllers.
Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest hubs, saw delays stretching to three hours.
The New York City Emergency Management office posted on X that the problems at Newark were cascading to other airports in the region.
They said that passengers “should expect schedule changes, gate holds, and missed connections,” the agency warned, advising them to check their flight status and plan for long waits.
Flight-tracking service FlightAware reported more than 5,516 delays and over 240 cancellations nationwide by Sunday evening, with significant disruptions at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Dallas Fort Worth International, Chicago O’Hare, and airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, and Miami.
While not all disruptions were directly tied to staffing shortages, the shortage of controllers has created a ripple effect through the nation’s air traffic system.
In a Friday statement, the Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged that air traffic controllers were operating under extreme pressure after going more than a month without pay.
The agency noted that “air traffic controllers are under immense stress and fatigue” after 31 straight days of work without paychecks.
Nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers have been working without pay for weeks, ensuring the safety of more than 50,000 daily operations across the national airspace system (NAS).
As we head into this weekend, a surge in callouts is straining staffing levels at multiple…
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) November 1, 2025
“Currently, half of our Core 30 facilities are experiencing staffing shortages, and nearly 80 percent of air traffic controllers are absent at New York-area facilities,” the FAA said.
Speaking Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Duffy said he had been encouraging air traffic controllers to continue reporting for duty but acknowledged the toll the shutdown had taken on them and their families.
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“They’re confronted with a decision: Do I put food on my kids’ table, do I put gas in the car, do I pay my rent, or do I go to work and not get paid?” Duffy said. “They’re making decisions they shouldn’t have to make.”
Despite the strain, Duffy said he would not punish those who missed shifts.
“When they’re making decisions to feed their families, I’m not going to fire air traffic controllers,” he said.
“They need support, they need money, they need a paycheck. They don’t need to be fired.”
The Transportation Secretary defended the administration’s handling of the shutdown, insisting that President Donald Trump had done everything possible to shield Americans from its fallout.
“President Trump has done all he can to minimize the pain of the shutdown on the American people,” Duffy said.
Drawing a contrast with former President Barack Obama’s 2013 shutdown, he accused Democrats of weaponizing the situation for political gain.
“You remember under Barack Obama’s shutdown, he was trying to gate off open-air monuments in Washington, D.C., and was shutting down parks, just walking paths,” he said.
“President Trump has tried to make it less painful on the American people. We’re looking for pots of money to pay essential workers, but there’s really strict rules around what money we can use and how we can use it.”
While Duffy and the administration sought to reassure travelers, the political blame game in Washington intensified.
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) admitted that Democrats “need to own” the shutdown, which has gone on long enough to effect Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding.
“I’m deeply, deeply distressed to know that 42 million Americans are going to lose their SNAP benefits,” he said. “And now, that’s one of the big reasons why I refused to shutting our government down.”
“I feel like the Democrats really need to own the shutdown. I mean, we’re shutting it down. I know why — they claim — because they want to address the tax credits.”
President Trump, meanwhile, slammed Democrats as “crazed lunatics” who have “lost their way,” arguing that their refusal to cooperate has brought the government to a standstill.
Speaking on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Trump said Democrats were obstructing progress in an attempt to extract concessions on healthcare subsidies.
“The Republicans are voting almost unanimously to end it, and the Democrats keep voting against ending it,” Trump said.
He pointed out that historically, both parties had supported short-term extensions to reopen the government.
“You know, they’ve never had this. This has happened like 18 times before. The Democrats always voted for an extension, always saying, ‘Give us an extension, we’ll work it out.’”
Trump predicted Democrats would eventually have to relent, saying their position was unsustainable.
“I think they have to,” he said. “And if they don’t vote, it’s their problem.”
Senate Democrats have now voted 13 times against reopening the government, insisting that they won’t negotiate until Republicans agree to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire later this year.
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