Los trastornos del tráfico aéreo persisten tras el cierre de 43 días mientras la FAA mantiene los recortes de vuelos al 6%

The 43-day shutdown that began Oct. 1, 2025 became the longest in U.S. history before President Trump signed a funding bill the night of Nov. 12. Reopening didn't clear the skies. On Nov. 13, the first full day back, airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights and delayed about 2,478, with the most cancellations at Chicago O'Hare, Atlanta, and Denver.

Air traffic controllers worked the entire shutdown without pay because federal law classes them as essential. They drew a partial check on Oct. 14, their first zero-dollar paycheck on Oct. 28, and a second zero-dollar check in mid-November. Duffy promised 70% of back pay within 48 hours of reopening and the rest about a week later, a timeline many controllers doubted after waiting years for owed pay following the 2018-19 shutdown.

The disruption ran on an FAA emergency order, not a vote. The agency told airlines at 40 high-impact airports to cut daily flights starting at 4% on Nov. 7 and rising toward 10%. As the shutdown deal advanced, Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford froze the reduction at 6% on Nov. 12 rather than ramp to the planned 8%, and lifted the order entirely on Nov. 17.

Staffing triggers, the FAA's term for when a facility falls below safe controller levels, hit a record 81 on Nov. 8. Airlines for America reported its members canceled just 11 flights for staffing in the shutdown's first 29 days, then 1,271 over the next nine days, including 865 on Nov. 7. Cancellations peaked around 2,900 on Nov. 9.

Duffy publicly blamed absent controllers. On Fox Business he called a subset "problem children", said he was "concerned about their patriotism," and threatened to fire those who skipped work. NATCA president Nick Daniels pushed back that unpaid work itself raised risk, warning on CNN that "tomorrow will be less safe than today" and calling it "incredibly unfair" to make controllers "bear the full burden of policy disagreements in Congress."

Bedford defended the cuts as prevention, saying the FAA "can't ignore it when the early indicators" point to trouble. After the shutdown, he escalated the fight with the union, telling Congress that controllers who called out sick may have acted illegally under the no-strike rule that dates to 1981.

The shutdown hit a system already short-staffed. The FAA runs about 11,000 certified controllers, roughly 3,000 below its target, with 19 of the 30 busiest facilities under 85% staffing. Only about 2% of applicants finish training, which takes years, so the agency's push to hire 2,000 a year barely outruns retirements.

Airline CEOs lobbied hard to reopen. American's Robert Isom said "nobody wants to put up with hassle" as American cut about 220 flights a day, and United's Scott Kirby warned the shutdown "put the whole economy at risk." Both met Vice President JD Vance in late October. The U.S. Travel Association pegged the cost to the travel economy at about $1 billion a week.

The crisis collided with the FAA's modernization bid. Duffy is asking Congress to fund a $31.5 billion air traffic control overhaul; lawmakers, led by House Transportation Chairman Sam Graves, put a $12.5 billion down payment in the 2025 reconciliation law. The last overhaul, NextGen, spent more than $15 billion since 2003 and delivered 16% of its promised benefits.

The pattern is old. In 1981, Reagan fired 11,345 striking controllers and banned them for life, cementing the rule that controllers can't strike. The 35-day 2018-19 shutdown ended within hours after controller absences forced a ground stop at New York's LaGuardia. Travelers stuck at airports in 2025 saw the cost plainly; one told NBC Washington that politicians "use us as pawns."