Newark Liberty International Airport has grounded planes as staffing shortages from the ongoing government shutdown leaves the Federal Aviation Administration struggling.
The ground delay went into effect at 3:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday and is expected to last until 11 p.m.
Passengers can expect their planes to be delayed by an average of 40 minutes.
Air traffic controller shortages have become a major burden on American travelers during the government shutdown and it will only get worse with the busy Thanksgiving and winter holidays fast approaching.
Over the weekend, there were more than 50 staffing shortages at airports across the country, CNN reported.
There were more than 7,000 flight delays within, into or out of the U.S. on Monday, more than 4,000 Tuesday and nearly 3,000 by Wednesday afternoon, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.
Unpaid air traffic controllers have been increasingly calling out sick, making it more difficult to staff towers that are crucial to the safety of the millions of Americans who take to the skies every day.
“My message has been to the controllers, ‘Show up, that’s your job. Eventually, you’re gonna be paid.’ But there’s real-life situations that they’re dealing with, with their families,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently told Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures.
It is day 29 of the government shutdown and Democrats and Republicans remain in gridlock over a bill to fund federal agencies.
Democrats are demanding a reversal in Medicaid cuts laid out in President Donald Trump’s massive spending bill, which he signed in July, and an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies for their support of a funding bill.
Republicans have baselessly claimed Democrats want to give free healthcare to undocumented immigrants, despite the group not being eligible for federal healthcare programs. There are exceptions for emergency care.
The last government shutdown — which lasted 35 days during Trump’s first term — also saw an influx of air traffic controllers calling out sick, causing sweeping flight delays that helped pressure politicians to open the government.
