By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is delaying flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport due to air traffic control staffing issues as a government shutdown hits its 30th day.
The FAA said flight delays were averaging 91 minutes at Reagan and 21 minutes at Dallas and it expected to delay flights at Orlando later due to staffing issues. Tens of thousands of flights have been delayed or canceled as staffing outages have increased dramatically during the government shutdown.
Earlier on Thursday, the FAA had issued a ground stop for Reagan Airport, citing issues with air traffic controller staffing.
Bad weather is also delaying flights throughout the U.S. northeast.
More than 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers are working without pay. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said this week that 44% of delays on Sunday and 24% on Monday were caused by air traffic controller absences, compared to 5% on average before the shutdown.
The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels and many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown.
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Katharine Jackson and Andrea Ricci)
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