US President Donald Trump has suggested that air traffic controllers who work through the government shutdown without pay could receive bonuses of $10,000 each.
Writing on TruthSocial on Monday (November 10), Trump also said that air traffic controllers who refuse to return to work will be “substantially docked”.
“For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, in full, shortly into the future, I am not happy with you,” he said.
“You will have a negative mark, at least in my mind, against your record. If you want to leave service in the near future, please do not hesitate to do so, with NO payment or severance of any kind!”
Last week, as covered by Airline Economics, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed that air traffic controllers received a partial payment in early October, but did not receive the remainder of their paycheck for the month.
They are also set to miss their next paycheck for the first half of November, by which point they will have worked a full month without pay.
During a joint press briefing with Bryan Bedford, administrator at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Duffy said the US is now short of 2,000 air traffic controllers, having “surged” the number of applications to the academy earlier this year.
However, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) continues to put the shortage at 3,800, relative to the FAA’s staffing targets.
Either way, the air traffic controller shortage was deemed critical enough to reduce capacity across 40 of the busiest airports in the US by 10%.
The measure, implemented by the FAA on Friday (November 7), will stay in place until air traffic control safety data shows signs of improvement.
As of today, the current government shutdown has entered its 42nd day. It has already eclipsed the record of the 2019 shutdown, which ran for 35 days and was previously the longest in US history.
However, on Sunday night the Senate passed a new funding package in a 60-40 vote, which could bring the shutdown to an end, should it also be passed by the House of Representatives.