Updated at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, November 10, 2025.
The House could vote as soon as Wednesday morning to reopen the government and send a legislative package to the White House, but the nation’s travelers and air traffic controllers will likely feel the impacts of the federal shutdown long after the government reopens.
“This shutdown isn't a light switch,” National Air Traffic Controllers Association president Nick Daniels said at a Monday morning press conference. “In 2019, it took air traffic controllers approximately two to two-and-a-half months to be made whole.”
Air traffic controllers are required to work without pay throughout the shutdown, which has led to staffing shortages and delays. Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration began reducing flights across 40 major airports, including Denver.
“They are doing everything they can to hold this system together,” Daniels said. “But 41 days without pay is unacceptable.”
Denver International Airport had asked the FAA for permission to pay Colorado’s air traffic controllers through airport revenue and receive a federal reimbursement when the shutdown is over. As of Monday, DIA had not received a response from the FAA. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed flight cuts will remain until staffing and safety metrics improve. It’s unclear how long that might take.
“Air traffic control is one of the most mentally demanding and high-consequence professions in the entire world,” said Daniels. “But now, they must focus on childcare instead of traffic flows, food for their families instead of runway separation. This is not politics. This is not ideology. This is the erosion of the safety margin the flying public never sees but America relies on every single day.”
Daniels said 91 percent of U.S. flight facilities were operating without proper staffing, even before the shutdown began. “We are 3,800 certified professional controllers short. Over 41 percent of our facilities work a mandatory six day work week — 10 hour days,” Daniels said. There are roughly 300 air traffic controllers in Colorado.
Some workers who recently completed training have turned down jobs in the sector in favor of seeking pay elsewhere. Others have quit or retired, unable to make ends meet as the shutdown lingers. Air traffic controller Amy Lark said many of her co-workers are working other jobs to make ends meet, putting additional strain on an already stressful job.
“When you walk into an operation and you know your coworkers have taken a second job; they're up till midnight driving Uber because they can't pay their bills; everyone's questioning if they can pay their mortgage; I have coworkers who can’t pay for childcare, so now they have to figure out how they're going to come into work,” Lark said. “That uncertainty, that fear, creates a distraction that no air traffic controller should have to carry when we're ensuring the safety of the flying public.”
“If you want to know what the real fallout of this shutdown is, it's not a budget line,” said Daniels. “It is the smallest and the most dangerous shift of all. When the most disciplined safety workforce in America is forced to think about survival instead of public safety.”
Daniels mentioned an air traffic controller whose husband is a five-time combat veteran with 100 percent disability, leaving her as the single income earner for her family. “Their son just graduated from Navy A school, fourth in his class, but they could not afford to attend his graduation,” he said. “She's plagued by financial insecurity. She has sold plasma twice, started delivering for DoorDash, and recently took a part-time job on her regularly scheduled day off.”
On Monday, President Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said any controllers who wanted to quit shouldn't hesitate. But he said they would receive "NO payment or severance of any kind!" and would be "quickly replaced by true Patriots."
Other politicians, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, quickly offered criticism of Trump’s comments.
“The President wouldn't last five minutes as an air traffic controller," Buttigieg said in a post on X, "And after everything they've been through — and the way this administration has treated them from Day One — he has no business s—ing on them now."
The Senate is expected to advance a funding bill Monday night that would reopen the government so long as the House moves it through this week. The agreement would keep the government open until Jan. 30, when another shutdown could take place if another continuing resolution is not passed.
That means, by the time air traffic controllers get back pay for the 43 or more days without a check, they could be staring down yet another unpaid government shutdown.
“Knowing every shutdown, that you could possibly be a political pawn, never puts controllers completely at ease,” Daniels said. “But getting them paid is the priority. So this is a step in the right direction.”
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that DIA has not heard back from the FAA regarding paying Colorado air traffic controllers and receiving reimbursements.
