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DOT may close certain parts of the airspace due to air traffic controller shortages

<i>Shannon Stapleton/Reuters via CNN Newsource</i><br/>Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy holds a press conference on the impact of the government shutdown on air travel

By CNN Newsource

Published November 4, 2025 12:55 pm

By Alexandra Skores, CNN

Washington (CNN) — The Department of Transportation may close some parts of US airspace if enough air traffic controllers don’t show up to work, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday.

“If you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos,” Duffy said at a news conference on Tuesday. “You will see mass flight delays, you’ll see mass cancelations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace because we just cannot manage it because we don’t have the air traffic controllers.”

Controllers received a partial paycheck early in the shutdown, and last week missed one entirely. On Thursday, Duffy said, controllers will be sent another paystub that reads $0. He said many controllers cannot go without two paychecks.

Controllers, like Transportation Security Administration workers, are essential employees and are required to work during federal government shutdowns despite not being paid. This past week, TSA and Federal Aviation Administration employees not showing up for work caused massive security wait times in Houston and delays at airports across the country.

“I can’t just go find money and pay air traffic controllers,” Duffy said. “That’s not the way our constitution works and our government works.”

Earlier this year, the DOT hired 2,000 controllers to try and address a decades long shortage, but Duffy said the shutdown “will have an impact.”

“These young people have a choice to make: do they want to go into a profession where they can have a shutdown and they cannot be paid? That’s affected our pipeline,” he said.

Duffy also reaffirmed if the airspace wasn’t safe, the DOT would “shut it down.” He said some controllers may work two positions versus one because of the callouts, which is allowed and safe, but does pose a greater risk.

“We delay flights, we cancel or tell airlines to cancel flights if we don’t have enough controllers to effectively and safely manage our skies, Duffy said. “With this shutdown, it would be dishonest to say that more risk is not injected into the system. There is more risk in the system.”