The delays were cascading along the Eastern Seaboard, reaching as far north as Boston. But La Guardia in New York was the only airport that had been closed off to departing flights from other cities because it was so crowded with planes taking off and landing on a weekday morning. Delays on flights into La Guardia were averaging almost an hour and a half, the FAA said.
The delays seemed to be easing late Friday morning. But the disruption was significant and ratcheted up the pressure on political leaders because it showed how the shutdown could reverberate far beyond government workers and affect a large number of people.
Concern that the situation in the skies could get worse was somewhat alleviated after President Donald Trump announced a deal to temporarily reopen the government and promised that workers would receive backpay as soon as possible.
On Friday, staffing problems at two air-traffic control facilities on the East Coast, one near Washington and one in Jacksonville, Florida, prompted the FAA to slow traffic in and out of airports. Those facilities manage air traffic at high altitudes.
The agency said there had been a slight increase in the number of controllers calling in sick at those facilities Friday.
The control towers at the airports that serve New York City and the central air-traffic control facility on Long Island that monitors those airports were fully staffed, said a person who had been briefed on the situation.
In Washington, Democratic leaders pounced on Trump, blaming him for the air traffic slowdown.
“The #TrumpShutdown has already pushed hundreds of thousands of Americans to the breaking point,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote on Twitter. “Now it’s pushing our airspace to the breaking point too. @realDonaldTrump, stop endangering the safety, security and well-being of our nation. Re-open government now!”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.