Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Thousands of flights will be canceled because the federal government is in a supposed ‘shutdown.’ Air traffic controllers are working without pay until that ‘shutdown’ gets resolved. As you might imagine, employees who aren’t getting paychecks become less reliable about showing up for work. Some of them quit. Others call in sick. Towers are short-staffed. … Now we’re reaching the point where there just aren’t enough controllers working to safely handle the 10 million commercial flights that take off and land each year at American airports. … There’s an easy long-term solution to this problem, and it doesn’t involve screaming at politicians to get their act together, pass a spending bill, and start paying all those air traffic controllers again. It’s time to take air traffic control away from the government, at least with respect to letting the Federal Aviation Administration serve as the controllers’ employer.” (11/06/25)