A Tool Reveals How the Government Shutdown Affected Flights

As you’re almost certainly aware, the United States is currently in the midst of one of its longest government shutdowns ever. That doesn’t mean that every part of the federal government has shuttered – mail deliveries are still happening, for instance – but some federal employees are working without pay, and that includes air traffic controllers. And that, in turn, is having a cascading effect on commercial air travel.

Beginning on Thursday, there has been an increase in the number of delayed flights in the U.S. Reuters reported that airports in Florida, Texas and Washington, D.C. all experienced flight delays due to a lack of air traffic controllers, information that comes from the FAA. But it’s one thing to read about flight delays at a variety of airports; it’s another to actually see the information in context.

This is where the flight tracking service FlightAware enters the picture. They’ve compiled a resource called the Misery Map, which is exactly what its name suggests: a way to see where flights have been delayed since October 30, and what the proportion of delayed or cancelled flights from a given airport is relative to on-time flights.

As of this writing, the airport with the largest share of delayed and cancelled flights is Newark Liberty International Airport, with 61 delays or cancellations since the 30th. Just behind Newark are Denver International Airport, with 52 affected flights, and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, with 46 affected flights.

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In a recent article for The New York Times, Karoun Demirjian and Christine Chung explored the underlying issues behind these air traffic control issues. The biggest element at play here is that federal air traffic controllers have now missed a full paycheck, making it easy to understand why some haven’t been showing up at work.

The FAA will also implement a policy of “staffing triggers” when enough air traffic controllers are absent, which leads to a reduction of flights into an airport. As of this writing, the FAA currently had staffing triggers slated for Newark and Jacksonville.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…