‘Hopelessness’ among air traffic controllers as government shutdown drags on, expert says

WASHINGTON - The head of the Federal Aviation Administration said that travelers will have fewer flight options within the U.S. starting Friday as the agency imposes schedule cuts at dozens of major airports to ease the strain on air traffic controllers during the record-long government shutdown.

The head of the FAA said the move is unprecedented but necessary to keep people safe as staffing shortages and unpaid work increasingly take a toll on the controllers.

Air traffic controllers working overtime without paychecks

Why you should care:

Most air traffic controllers worked six days a week and put in mandatory overtime even before the shutdown, but they have been doing so without paychecks as lawmakers fail to agree on a way to reopen the government.

Airports in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other airline hubs will be impacted, according to a list distributed to the airlines and obtained by The Associated Press. Hundreds of flights scheduled for Friday already were canceled as of late Thursday afternoon.

What they're saying:

"It’s becoming more difficult to articulate day by day," the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Nick Daniels, told FOX News. "The stress, the frustration, and a job we already know is one of the most high demanding, high consequence jobs in the world, and yet now there’s a level of hopelessness."

NATCA has said the overtime work among controllers has left little time for a side job to help cover bills, mortgage payments and other expenses unless controllers call out.

"The staffing shortage that this country is facing is real," Daniels continued. "When one person now has to do the job of two, we have to combine positions because we have air traffic controllers that can’t afford to put gas in their car or pay for child care, these issues are going to mount day by day."

He added: "We’re showing up to work every day the best way that we can to get through this crisis, but this isn’t something that we asked for, we didn’t want to put ourselves in the middle of it, yet here we are, the rope in the tug-of-war game that we didn't ask for at all and we should not be used as political pawns in any way, shape, or form for these shutdowns."

Controller staffing worsening

Big picture view:

The past weekend brought some of the worst staffing issues since the start of the shutdown.

From Friday to Sunday evening, at least 39 air traffic control facilities reported potential staffing limits, according to an AP analysis of operations plans shared through the Air Traffic Control System Command Center system. The figure, which is likely an undercount, was well above the average for weekends before the shutdown.

U.S. airlines also began canceling hundreds of flights Thursday due to the FAA’s order to reduce traffic at the country’s busiest airports.

RELATED: FAA airspace closures: How each airline is responding

The FAA seeks to reduce service by 10% across "high-volume" markets to maintain travel safety as air traffic controllers exhibit signs of strain during the shutdown. The move also comes as the Trump administration is ramping up pressure on Democrats in Congress to end the shutdown.

Nearly 700 planned Friday flights were cut from airline schedules, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks flight disruptions. That number, already four times higher than Thursday's daily total, was likely to keep climbing.

The 40 airports selected by the FAA span more than two dozen states and include hubs such as Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina, according to a list distributed to the airlines and obtained by The Associated Press. In some metropolitan areas, including New York, Houston, Chicago and Washington, multiple airports will be impacted.