The government shutdown is impacting air travel and may impact it even more in the coming week and beyond, as air traffic controllers miss paychecks and call in sick.

Flights in and out of the Bay Area were delayed Sunday due to a ground stop that was ordered at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), due to a staffing shortage at the air traffic control tower there. As the LA Times reports, the ground stop, ordered by the FAA, began at 8:42 am, and was lifted at 10:30 am.

The stoppage reportedly impacted much of Southern California, and as KTVU reports, it impacted multiple flights in and out of SFO and Oakland, which were unable to take off for LAX until the stop was lifted.

A total of 22 airports reportedly saw staffing "triggers" occur the day before, on Saturday, which can lead to ground stops. As KABC reports, Newark International Airport, a major hub for United Airlines in New Jersey, there were also disruptions to takeoffs and landings on Sunday, and also at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Florida.

Staffing shortages and technical troubles in air-traffic control towers were already making headlines earlier this year before the federal government shutdown began impacting the controllers' paychecks.

Newark Airport experienced multiple radio system outages between April and May that created chaos in the air traffic there, and reports have been circulating about overworked air traffic controllers due to retirements and towers being short-staffed overall.

Around 13,000 air traffic controllers will be missing another paycheck this week, and while they are required to show up for work during a government shutdown, they can only hope they will receive retroactive pay once Congress gets back in session and approves it. The rise in controllers calling in sick may be due to their own stress and frustration at not being paid, and it may also be practical — they have to go work a second job to put food on the table.

Since the shutdown began on October 1, there have been 246 incidents of staffing problems at air traffic control facilities, as CNN reports.

Lack of staff led to the control tower at Burbank Airport shutting down completely in the first week of of the shutdown, for a six-hour period. During that period, pilots had to rely on radio communication with other pilots and a set of procedures for takeoffs and landings used for unmanned airports that led to multi-hour delays for flights in and out of the airport.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy went on Fox News Sunday to discuss the problem, once again trying to cast blame on Democrats for the shutdown. Governor Gavin Newsom's press office responded to news of the ground stop in LA, posting to X "Hell of a job @SecDuffy! Can't wait to see what you do with NASA."

Photo by Wilson Ye