NEW A vastly improved search engine helps you find the latest on companies, business leaders, and news more easily.<doc-sep>Back @ gate after waiting on tarmac for 2hrs. @JetBlue pilot says all departures at #jfk over water are halted due to #GovernmentShutdown pic.twitter.com/wVeb3lx2dP — Andrew Seng (@AndrewSeng_) January 25, 2019 @LGAairport We have been sitting on the tarmac for 50 mins because of staff shortages in air traffic control. Flight landed 45 mins early too! — Stacey Carey (@SACpromos) January 25, 2019 NEW YORK -- Hours before a deal to reopen the government was reached, passengers endured delays at LaGuardia, Newark and other airports due to air traffic controller staffing shortages caused by what the FAA described as "sick leave. "FAA says a small uptick in air traffic controllers calling out sick on Friday led to the problems.The FAA tells ABC News in a statement:"We have experienced a slight increase in sick leave at two air traffic control facilities affecting New York and Florida. As with severe storms, we will adjust operations to a safe rate to match available controller resources. We've mitigated the impact by augmenting staffing, rerouting traffic, and increasing spacing between aircraft as needed. The results have been minimal impacts to efficiency while maintaining consistent levels of safety in the national airspace system. The public can monitor air traffic at fly.faa.gov and they should check with airline carriers for more information. "LaGuardia Airport in New York and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey were both experiencing delays in takeoffs.Some passengers took to social media to report delays.Staffing shortages were reported at centers in Washington and Jacksonville, an FAA spokesperson tells ABC News.The most critical staffing shortage happened in Washington, which affects NY airspace in terms of incoming and outgoing flights.Of the 13 controllers scheduled to work in the DC area center, six called out on Friday, sources told ABC News.President Donald Trump was briefed on the situation, and hours later announced a deal to reopen the government for at least 3 weeks was reached.New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says delays at East Coast airports amid a partial federal government shutdown were another symptom of the "federal madness" caused by Republican President Donald Trump. "No one could make up the situation that we're in. And it gets worse every day. Today they issue a ground stop - they halt flights leaving LaGuardia Airport. Why do they do that? Because due to the federal shutdown, there are too few staff at the FAA in Washington to adequately control air traffic and they have to reduce flights coming from airports on the East Coast like LaGuardia due to the staffing shortage," Cuomo said.His comments came at an unrelated event in Manhattan Friday morning.----------<doc-sep>At least four major airports suffered flight delays Friday because of an increase in air traffic control employees calling in sick amid the government shutdown, which ended Friday afternoon after 35 days thanks to a short-term deal. The Federal Aviation Administration’s flight delay map had showed significant departure delays at Philadelphia and Newark, New Jersey, Friday morning. Lesser delays also showed at New York LaGuardia earlier in the day. By early afternoon, “staffing” delays had dissipated at Philadelphia but had popped up in Atlanta, the world’s busiest airport. The FAA listed “staffing” as the cause and had issued a “traffic management” initiative to slow down the rates of departures. Typically, that “metering” effort helps controllers space out planes to keep the pace of either arrivals or departures from exceeding their capacity. The FAA confirmed it had initiated procedures to adjust flights because of an increase in sick calls by controllers. “We have experienced a slight increase in sick leave at two facilities,” a spokesman for the FAA said in a statement to USA TODAY. “We’ve mitigated the impact by augmenting staffing, rerouting traffic, and increasing spacing between aircraft when needed. The results have been minimal impacts to efficiency while maintaining consistent levels of safety in the national airspace system. The public can monitor air traffic at fly.faa.gov and they should check with airline carriers for more information.” More:Amid shutdown, is it safe to fly? Airlines say yes, but worry about increasing delays More:Shutdown Day 35: Senate leaders negotiate as staffing shortages cause delays at major airports More:10 percent of TSA workers call in sick as government shutdown drags on At one point Friday morning, the FAA site had listed departure delays averaging more than an hour at both Newark and Philadelphia. The Philadelphia delays had dissipated later in the morning, according to the FAA site. Just before noon ET, LaGuardia remained a trouble spot, with delays on arriving flights averaging nearly 90 minutes. Atlanta's delays, which popped up after noon, were more than an hour. Delays persisted at Newark as of 12:55 p.m. ET, though the cause was no longer staffing but "wind," according to the FAA. Flyers could face sporadic delays at those airports, and possibly others, throughout the day. The delays were caused by an insufficient number of air traffic controllers in two regional facilities near Washington, D.C., and Jacksonville, Fla., according to the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center. Those facilities help coordinate the thousands of flights that fly through an area of the East Coast that stretches from Florida to Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The news of staffing issues comes two days after leaders of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union which represents the controllers, held a press conference on the steps of Capitol Hill arguing that the now-ended shutdown was harming the safety of air travel in the United States. Air traffic controllers have been working without pay since Dec. 22. They have received paychecks during that time, but each check read $0.00, said Bill Striffler, the union’s representative at Newark airport. “We have a growing concern for the safety and security of our members, our airlines and the traveling public due to the government shutdown,” the union said in a statement issued prior to the end of the shutdown. “In our risk averse industry, we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break.” Press secretary Sarah Sanders said President Trump has been briefed on the airport delays. “The President has been briefed and we are monitoring the ongoing delays at some airports. We are in regular contact with officials at the Department of Transportation and the FAA.” The travel troubles come a day after a trio of airline CEOs sounded alarms that the shutdown had reached a tipping point. The CEOs of American, Southwest and JetBlue specifically warned about the potential for flights to be delayed because a shortage of air traffic controllers would require more spacing between flights. One major airline, Air Canada, issued a rebooking waiver for customers headed to Newark and LaGuardia because of “Air Traffic Control restrictions.” So far, none of the biggest U.S. airlines were waiving fees, though they said they were monitoring the situation. “We haven’t experienced significant impacts to our operation or schedule at this point, but continue to monitor and are working closely with the FAA," American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said to USA TODAY before the shutdown-ending deal was announced. "Our goal is to minimize disruptions for our customers and our team members taking care of our customers. In this spirit, we urge that the federal government be re-opened before shutdown impacts begin to escalate.” JetBlue Airways passengers traveling Friday may experience delays or longer-than-normal flight times due to air traffic control staffing shortages, spokesman Philip Stewart said. Customers should check their flight status at jetblue.com or on the airline's mobile app, he said. Delta Air Lines said about 200 flights at LaGuardia and other airports in the Northeast were delayed Friday morning due to the FAA's ground delay program. "Delta is working to reaccomodate customers to their destinations and encourages customers traveling on Friday to check delta.com or the Fly Delta App for their current flight status,'' spokesman Drake Castañeda said. Labor officials also began to weigh in Friday on the staffing-related issues with controllers, saying that they had already sounded the alarm for potential harm to aviation from the shutdown. "This is exactly what AFA and other aviation unions have been warning would happen,” Sara Nelson, president of Association of Flight Attendants that represents about 50,000 attendants at numerous airlines, said in a statement. “The aviation system depends on the safety professionals who make it run,” she added. “They have been doing unbelievably heroic work even as they are betrayed by the government that employs them. They are fatigued, worried, and distracted – but they won't risk our safety. So the planes will stay on the ground. This is anything but a sick out - it is only about our safety and the air traffic controllers' absolute commitment to it.” Contributing: David Jackson and Dawn Gilbertson of USA TODAY and Christopher Maag of The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey.<doc-sep>
“The President has been briefed and we are monitoring the ongoing delays at some airports. We are in regular contact with officials at the Department of Transportation and the FAA.” - @PressSec — The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 25, 2019 EMBED >More News Videos Before 2018, the federal government experienced more than a dozen prior shutdowns and funding gaps. NEW YORK (KABC) -- Delays were reported at several airports, including LaGuardia, Newark, as well as airports in Philadelphia and Florida, due to air traffic controller staffing shortages due to the government shutdown The Federal Aviation Administration said the slowdown was due to staffing shortages in Washington and Jacksonville on Friday. This was before President Donald Trump announced that he would be signing legislation to temporarily end the shutdown until Feb. 15.An FAA spokesperson told ABC News that the most critical staffing shortage was the Washington shortage, which affects New York airspace in terms of in-going and out-going flights.The slowdown impacted flights paths nationally, specifically on the East Coast. Los Angeles International airport did not immediately see any widespread delays as a result.In response to FAA staffing shortages, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson released the following statement:Air traffic controllers, whose numbers were already at a 30-year low, have been working without pay for 35 days, because of the partial government shutdown. "We have experienced a slight increase in sick leave at two air traffic control facilities affecting New York and Florida. As with severe storms, we will adjust operations to a safe rate to match available controller resources," FAA spokesman Gregory Martin wrote ABC News in an email. "We've mitigated the impact by augmenting staffing, rerouting traffic, and increasing spacing between aircraft as needed. The results have been minimal impacts to efficiency while maintaining consistent levels of safety in the national airspace system. The public can monitor air traffic at fly.faa.gov and they should check with airline carriers for more information," Martin said.The staffing issue had travelers at LAX wondering about safety. "The fact that people who are supposed to be responsible for our safety on planes aren't getting paid is insane. It's ridiculous," said Kelsey Worth, who was traveling through LAX on Friday.Some insist the shutdown may be worth it if it increases border security. "I'm from San Diego, a border city, and a lot of people there agree with it. The Border Patrol agree with it, a lot of the residents agree with it," said David Esquivel, who was also traveling through LAX Friday.Meantime, the Transportation Security Administration said employees who worked during this pay period and making less than $90,000 will be paid for one week. That would cover all the screeners, if they worked. This action is aimed at paying the screeners and keep them on the job as the shutdown continues, TSA officials said.In addition, employees who were exempted and not furloughed making up to $90,000 will be paid. This means that more than 51,000 TSA screeners and employees will be paid for at least one week from the past month, if they worked the week of Dec. 23 - Jan. 5.At the security checkpoint, the shutdown may be taking a toll on moral. One sure sign of that is the absentee rate - normally it hovers around 3 percent. Last week, it jumped to close to 10 percent.Some airports have seen increased passenger security check times since the shutdown started.Also, some travelers know firsthand what the federal employees are dealing with. "My dad works for the government, and it's definitely impacting my family a lot," said Worth. "He's not getting paid, and I think it's, what really bothers me the most that I get so angry about is the fact that our congressmen are still paying themselves."