More than 200 controllers are based at the center. Union members there have handed out fliers at the airport on their days off, warning of increasing risks because of the shutdown. The Jacksonville center, based in Hilliard, doesn't oversee planes coming in and out of Jacksonville International Airport, but tracks planes as they fly over the Southeast. "As union leaders, we find it unconscionable that aviation professionals are being asked to work without pay and in an air safety environment that is deteriorating by the day," the unions said. Staffing at air traffic control centers is already at a 30-year low and many controllers are working overtime to keep up with the demand, the release said. "We have a growing concern for the safety and security of our members, our airlines, and the traveling public due to the government shutdown," said a press release issued this week by the air traffic controllers union, along with unions for pilots and flight attendants. The union has said that air traffic controllers, who have been working without pay for more than a month, are under more and more stress, and that crucial equipment that they use is not being repaired because of the shutdown - raising the risk of air travel. "This is reckless, what has been going on with the shutdown." "You can't mess with a system that is so integral to the United States," she told the network. Trish Gilbert, executive vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told CNN on Friday that the partial government shutdown is to blamed. The FAA said it was taking steps to minimize the impact of having fewer controllers at those centers, which oversee the routes of planes that are already in the air between destinations.ĭelays were reported at major hub airports such as LaGuardia, Newark and Philadelphia, which would have ripple affects throughout the country. "We have experienced a slight increase in sick leave at two air traffic control facilities affecting New York and Florida," the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement Friday. No-shows among workers at the Jacksonville and Washington air traffic control centers are being blamed for causing delays Friday at busy airports in the Northeast.
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