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The ongoing government shutdown is having major impacts for travelers in and out of Los Angeles.

Monday night there were no air traffic controllers working at the Hollywood Burbank airport which meant widespread delays and cancellations. 

However, on Tuesday, air traffic controllers were scheduled to return to work and full staffing of the control tower at Hollywood Burbank Airport.

Flight operations were scheduled to return to normal today with flights starting at 7:00 a.m., according to the operations employee on duty.    

Early Tuesday morning, all of the flights leaving Burbank were on time and all of the flights coming into Burbank were on time as well.

From 4:15 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., the FAA and Governor Newsom said there were no air traffic controllers in Burbank.

Luckily a team in San Diego stepped in to help keep the airport running, but the FAA said departures to Burbank were delayed an average of 151 minutes.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the airport was expected to remain without controllers until about 10 p.m., but officials were working to bring in staff as soon as possible.  It is unclear if controllers were actually back in the tower at 10:00 p.m. Monday night.

According to the FAA’s website, several measures were put in place, including ground delays at airports in other cities.    

Earlier in the day, airport spokesman Mike Christensen told City News Service that “operations and flights were running normally,” but referred further questions to the FAA once the staffing shortage took effect.

“As Secretary (Sean) Duffy said, there have been increased staffing shortages across the system. When that happens, the FAA slows traffic into some airports to ensure safe operations,” according to the FAA.    

Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed the situation on the shutdown, posting on X, “Thanks, @realDonaldTrump! Burbank Airport has ZERO air traffic controllers from 4:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. today because of YOUR government shutdown.”

The government shutdown entered its sixth day Monday as Democrats and Republicans remained at odds over a funding plan. Both a GOP-backed stopgap measure and a Democratic alternative failed to advance in the Senate.    

The last federal shutdown lasted 35 days in 2018-19 during President Donald Trump’s first term in office.    

The FAA advised passengers to check https://fly.faa.gov for real-time flight impacts.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said that it is normal for a few controllers to call in sick on any given day and said what happened Monday night is the latest example of how national staffing shortages are a real problem.

Source: NBC Los Angeles