The government shutdown disrupted flights at Hollywood Burbank Airport. Could it get worse?

Flights resumed at Hollywood Burbank Airport Tuesday after its air traffic control tower was temporarily unstaffed and dozens of flights were delayed or canceled a week into the federal government shutdown.

“Things are back to normal,” airport spokesperson Mike Christensen said Tuesday morning, noting that there were no lengthy delays to departures or arrivals.

On Monday, air traffic control staffing shortages caused delays at multiple airports across the country, including Newark Liberty International Airport, Denver International Airport and Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.

But even as Burbank returned to normal operations, the Federal Aviation Administration warned of more disruption at airports due to staff shortages as a result of the government shutdown.

By Tuesday, the agency’s operations plan expanded the list of airports experiencing “staffing triggers.” Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Nashville International Airport, it said, were experiencing staff shortages at their air traffic control towers. Houston’s two major commercial airports — William P. Hobby and George Bush Intercontinental — were also expected to see ground stops.

Even during a government shutdown, air traffic controllers are required to work unpaid and do not obtain retroactive pay until it ends. Over the last few days, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, the FAA had seen a “slight tick-up” in staffers calling out sick.

“Is our airspace unsafe? No,” Duffy told reporters Monday at a news conference at Newark Liberty International Airport. “If we think there’s issues in the airspace, we will shut it down. ... We will delay.”

Tuesday marked almost a week since the government shutdown, during which hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay, and many agency operations have been suspended or scaled back.

Air traffic controllers, however, have yet to miss a paycheck, Duffy said. But as politicians in Washington, D.C., seem deadlocked, many worry about the weeks ahead.

“They’re not just now thinking about the airspace and the jobs they have to do in these towers ... or centers across the country,” Duffy said. “They’re thinking about, ‘Am I going to get a paycheck?’ And their paychecks should come a week from tomorrow, and so now what they think about, as they’re controlling our airspace, is, ‘How am I going to pay my mortgage? How do I make my car payment? I have a couple kids at home. How do I put food on the table?’ ”

Nick Daniels — president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn., which represents nearly 20,000 air traffic controllers and aviation safety workers — joined Duffy Monday at Newark to call for an end to the shutdown.

“We need to bring this shutdown to a close, so that the Federal Aviation Administration and the committed aviation safety professionals can put this distraction behind us and completely focus on their vital work,” Daniels said, noting that the agency had been trying to accelerate the hiring of air traffic control workers and modernize its air traffic control system.

“Both initiatives are long overdue and require our immediate and our full attention,” he said. “We do not have the luxury of time.”

The last time there were significant disruptions to flights during a federal shutdown was in January 2019.

About 35 days into that shutdown, which began in December 2018, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily halted flights into LaGuardia Airport in New York City after a large number of air traffic controllers called in sick.

The abrupt stop of flights landing at LaGuardia only lasted 82 minutes, but it upped pressure on politicians to come to a deal. Hours later, President Trump announced that he and congressional leaders had agreed to temporarily end the shutdown.

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On Monday, outgoing flights at Hollywood Burbank Airport were delayed an average of two hours and 31 minutes around 5 p.m. due to staffing shortages and runway construction, according to the FAA. At that time, the longest delay reported was three hours and 55 minutes.

In total, 56 flights arriving to and departing from Burbank were delayed and 12 flights were canceled after 4 p.m. Monday, Christensen said.

FAA spokesperson Kristen Alsop said that staffing shortages were the main issue contributing to the delays.

Although the air traffic control tower was unstaffed, Southern California TRACON controls air traffic in the airport’s airspace, Alsop said. The San Diego-based organization is operated by the FAA and uses radar technology to ensure the safe flow of planes through airspace surrounding dozens of airports across Southern California.

Donald Lewis, a retired air traffic controller from Van Nuys Airport, told LAist’s “AirTalk” Tuesday that smaller airports typically have about nine to 15 controllers on staff for the whole day. Massive facilities like Los Angeles International Airport would have double or triple that or more.

“I think if 10 controllers called out today for this upcoming shift at LAX, we will see an immediate slowdown at LAX,” he said. “They need every controller there.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom was quick to point blame at Trump for the staffing challenges.

“Thanks,@realDonaldTrump! Burbank Airport has ZERO air traffic controllers from 4:15pm to 10pm today because of YOUR government shutdown,” he said Monday in a statement on X.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. called the ongoing issues at Hollywood Burbank Airport “the latest example of how fragile our aviation system is in the midst of a national shortage of these critical safety professionals.”

“NATCA has consistently warned that the controller staffing shortage leaves the system vulnerable, and today’s events underscore the urgent need to accelerate training and hiring,” the union said in a statement to The Times.

The union said that nearly 11,000 air traffic controllers were continuing to work without pay during the shutdown, many of them for 10-hour shifts up to six days a week. NATCA said it was working with the FAA to mitigate disruptions for travelers and would continue to fight to increase hiring rates of air traffic controllers.

Jeffrey Price, professor of aviation at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said staff shortages combined with diminished staff concentration during the government shutdown would undoubtedly impact aviation safety and security.

“It’s definitely a concern for both aviation safety and security when you’ve got the TSA screeners who will start experiencing higher absenteeism call offs and possibly even shutting down screening checkpoints because they won’t have staff for those areas,” Price said.

“The longer this goes on, the worse it’s going to get — and frankly, the less safe and secure our aviation industry will be.”