by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 11:30 AM ET, Fri October 10, 2025
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that air traffic controllers who call in sick during the government shutdown might lose their jobs, despite having to work unpaid.
The comment was aired live on Fox Business’ “Varney & Co.” on Thursday, October 9, in which he called air traffic controllers who called in sick during the shutdown “problem children” and said, “If we have some on our staff that aren’t dedicated, we’re going to let them go. Again, I can’t have people not showing up to work.”
Calling most air traffic controllers “amazing, beautiful, wonderful American patriots that show up to work every day,” he said there are a “small fraction of people who don’t come to work that can create this massive disruption and that’s what you’re seeing rippling through our skies today.”
There have been thousands of flight delays from Burbank to Nashville to Newark since the government shut down on October 1. According to Duffy’s message on Fox, pre-shutdown, only 5 percent of air traffic delays in the United States were caused by ATC; now that number is 53 percent.
On October 9, Newark International Airport experienced ground delays of up to 88 minutes in the afternoon due to ATC staffing shortages.
Air traffic controllers have been calling in sick, though the National Air Traffic Controllers Association was quick to point out that ATC procedures deal with inappropriate use of sick leave and that the association has encouraged workers to continue working despite not being paid.
The number of air traffic controllers needed to safely guide the American airspace is already woefully unmet; the Department of Transportation requires 3,500 more controllers to fill staffing targets, according to Politico.
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