The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed on Friday that there was a ground stop at LaGuardia Airport and that flights are delayed in New York and Florida airports due to air traffic controller absences.
The current slowdown in the airspace over Florida and New York is due to staffing shortages in Washington and Jacksonville, an FAA spokesperson told ABC News.
The most critical staffing shortage is the Washington shortage, which affects New York airspace in terms of incoming and outgoing flights.
The FAA is trying to clear the airspace, which should take about another hour, the spokesperson said.
The ground stop early Friday meant that flights could not fly into the Queens airport, FAA said. The ground stop has since been lifted.
Air traffic controllers (ATCs), whose numbers were already at a 30-year low, have been working without pay for 35 days, because of the partial government shutdown.
“We have experienced a slight increase in sick leave at two air traffic control facilities affecting New York and Florida. As with severe storms, we will adjust operations to a safe rate to match available controller resources,” FAA spokesman Gregory Martin wrote ABC News in an email earlier on Friday.
As many as 800,000 federal workers are currently facing a second missed paycheck because of the partial U.S. government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history. President Trump and Congressional Democrats are still at at stalemate over the federal budget.
The president insists on funding for a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, a key campaign promise.
Marisa Rizzuti was one of the fliers affected by the delays. The UNICEF fundraiser told ABC News her airline, Delta, did not tell passengers why the flights were delayed, although she got a text at 5 a.m. ET saying the flight would take off at 9:45 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. as originally scheduled.
Then the flight was delayed again until 11 a.m. ET.
“They did not give a reason at all,” Rizzuti told ABC News.
She said she was watching the news on TV at the airport, and “that’s how we found out.”
She was heading from New York to Detroit to watch a figure skating championship.
“It’s a good thing my tickets aren’t until 6 p.m.,” Rizzuti said.
ABC News’ Lindsey Jacobson and David Kerley contributed to this report.
