Articles by Forbes Staff,Suzanne Rowan Kelleher

Technology

Expect Flight Delays In Atlanta And Denver Amid Air Traffic Staffing Issues

Flight delays due to air traffic staffing shortages jumped over the weekend and are expected to escalate as controllers miss their first full paycheck Tuesday—with no end to the shutdown in sight. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the nation's busiest, is facing possible flight delays due to staffing issues during the government shutdown. Air traffic controllers will receive their first “zero paychecks” on Tuesday, day 28 of the government shutdown. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic advisory issued at 9:35 a.m. EDT Tuesday listed staffing triggers—indicating insufficient personnel—at three control facilities: the Atlanta Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), responsible for the sequencing and separation of planes at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the nation’s busiest airport; the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) Area 5, which controls the airspace at Ellsworth Air Force Base; and the Denver control tower at the fourth-busiest U.S. airport. The same advisory noted a possible ground stop later Tuesday morning at Denver due to staffing. An advisory issued two hours earlier noted the Atlanta TRACON staffing trigger would require an AFP (airspace flow program) to meter the flow of traffic, a mechanism that typically leads to flight delays. As of 10:15 a.m. EDT Tuesday, there were ground delays at Boston, Las Vegas and Newark airports, but none were due to staffing issues. On Monday, more than 7,300 flights—roughly 16% of total flights for the day—were delayed, according to FlightAware, including more than 800 flights in and out of Atlanta. On Sunday, more than 8,800 flights in U.S. airspace were delayed, with staffing shortages leading to a temporary ground stop at Los Angeles International Airport and significant flight delays at Newark and Dallas. Saturday saw staffing triggers at 22 air traffic control facilities, the highest number since the shutdown began, which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News was “a sign that the controllers are wearing thin.” Have Air Traffic Controller Absences Ticked Up During The Shutdown? The FAA has acknowledged a noticeable rise in staffing triggers as the shutdown has dragged on. “We have more people calling in sick, more people not showing up for work,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told “Sunday Morning Futures” viewers over the weekend, adding that controllers needed to “show up. That's your job.” On Saturday, there were staffing triggers at 22 facilities, which included a combination of TRACONs responsible for guiding planes in and out of airports, ARTCCs managing higher-altitude air traffic flow over a specific region, and airport air traffic control towers. In comparison, each of the three prior Saturdays saw a maximum of a dozen staffing triggers. How Might The Shutdown Impact The Ongoing Air Traffic Controller Shortage? Duffy said it could slow the “hiring supercharge” he promised in February. The FAA is still “about 2000 controllers short,” Duffy told Fox News, noting that while air traffic control instructors at the FAA’s academy in Oklahoma City are unpaid during the shutdown, trainees receive a stipend—yet the stipends are slated to run out in a little over a week. “We could lose this tranche of air traffic controllers,” Duffy said. “This has long term implications on our ability to make sure we don't have the staffing shortages and our flights are on time and they're not delayed, which I think frustrates so many darn Americans.” Is It Safe To Fly During The Shutdown? Aviation experts say flight delays are actually a sign that air traffic is being managed at a safe level. When the FAA has shortage of controllers at a specific facility, it can use programs like ground delays, where the flow of flights in and out of an airport is slowed to manageable level, and ground stops, where arrivals and departures are temporarily halted altogether. “If I don't feel like I have enough controllers or enough controllers that are focused, we will slow down traffic. We will stop traffic. And that's why you see the delays in the system,” Duffy told Fox News. Further Reading TSA Screeners Face First Missed Paycheck Friday—Expect Longer Airport Lines Starting This Weekend (Forbes) Got a tip? Share confidential information with Forbes. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions

Technology

TSA Screeners Face First Missed Paycheck Friday—Expect Longer Airport Lines Starting This Weekend

Multiple Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers have told Forbes the agency is using “strong-arm tactics” to discourage sick calls during the three-week government shutdown—but airport screener absenteeism is expected to jump after the first full paycheck is missed on Friday. A TSA agent clears passengers at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport during the government shutdown. (Photo: Tony Gutierrez) Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. “We will definitely see an uptick in call-offs and maybe even resignations” after Friday, October 24, when “the first full paycheck is not paid,” one veteran TSA worker who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation told Forbes. When a shutdown exceeds two weeks, “officers start to get frantic, and they stop going to work," Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former TSA officer, told CBS News. TSA management is using “strong-arm tactics” to intimidate airport screeners from calling in sick, multiple airport screeners told Forbes, with one adding, “overall, morale is crumbling.” Darrell English, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 777, the union that represents TSA workers in Chicago, told Fox 32 Chicago he expects more absenteeism at O’Hare and Midway airports “because of [TSA officers] not having a check at all,” which would result in longer airport security wait times. On Monday, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport—the country’s busiest—warned travelers of “longer than usual” wait times due to TSA staffing shortages. Why Might Friday Be A Trigger Day In This Shutdown? TSA workers will miss their first full paycheck on that day. The average TSA screener makes $48,520 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and TSA union officials have told Forbes many members live paycheck to paycheck. In past shutdowns, absenteeism among TSA workers increased after they missed a full paycheck, as many were forced to seek temporary gig work while their paychecks were being held. TSA workers are already taking side gigs driving for Uber, DoorDash or Lyft “to put food on the table,” Neal Gosman, treasurer of AFGE Local 899, a union representing TSA workers in Minnesota, told Reuters. "I'm nervous that [my colleagues’] funds are running out," Angela Grana, a TSA officer at the LaPlata Airport in Durango, Colo. told the local ABC News affiliate. "I don't know how they're going to pay for their childcare. I don't know how they're going to pay for their gas and their food to get to work.” During the 35-day shutdown in 2018-2019, roughly 10% of TSA workers called in sick. What “strong-Arm Tactics” Do Tsa Officers Say They Are Encountering? Three TSA workers based in different parts of the country told Forbes colleagues who called in sick received curiously similar responses, which led them to suspect coordination center operators were reading from a script; Forbes has reached out to TSA for comment. Officers who called in sick were told their “failure to report for work” would result in them being furloughed, “a non-paid, non-duty status.” They were told “all unscheduled absences are being tracked” and management would “review your reason for needing to be absent today.” If the TSA determined absences to be unauthorized, officers were told, they could be “placed in an Absent Without Leave (AWOL) status,” which would mean not getting paid for the sick day “and possible administrative action,” according to multiple people familiar with the responses. These tactics are having a “chilling effect” on TSA employees “even when they or their children are actually sick or cannot afford to come to work,” one TSA worker told Forbes, adding, “It’s crazy the level of low they are willing to go against their own workforce. People may be forced to leave kids at home alone for fear of losing their jobs.” Another officer recounted that a colleague did not take a personal day to attend the funeral of a close friend because she believed “she’ll be told she is going to be fired.” Surprising Fact A “sizeable number” of TSA workers are still in debt from having to take out loans during the 2018-2019 shutdown, multiple union officials told Forbes. Once the government is funded, workers will receive back pay in a lump, “so they tax the sh*t out of it,” one TSA worker complained. (While more tax may be withheld on a back-pay check, the final tax rate will be the same as regular wage when 2025 taxes are filed next year.) Further Reading Hundreds Of Unpaid TSA Agents Are Calling In Sick—Expect Longer Airport Security Lines (Forbes) Got a tip? Share confidential information with Forbes. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions