A Delta Air Lines Airbus A220 prepares for takeoff at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on July 10, 2025.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
delta airlines Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian told CNBC that the airline’s operations are proceeding smoothly despite the federal government shutdown, but that could change if it drags on for another 10 days.
More than 13,000 U.S. flights were delayed this week, some due to a shortage of air traffic controllers, raising concerns about the strain on the country’s aviation industry during the shutdown.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Monday that the Federal Aviation Administration is seeing a “slight increase” in sick calls to air traffic controllers.
Bastian also said the shutdown exacerbates concerns about the strain on air traffic controllers, a shortage that has long plagued airline executives. Thousands of federal employees, including airport air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration employees, are working without pay during the shutdown.
Delta Air Lines’ CEO said in an interview that so far there has been “no impact” from the grounding, but he called for a swift resolution. The government shutdown, which lasted more than a month in late 2018 and early 2019, ended hours after an increase in calls from air traffic controllers calling people sick, disrupting travel in the New York area.
“If this doesn’t get resolved, say in another 10 days or so, we’ll probably start to see some impact,” Bastian said Thursday in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
A persistent shortage of air traffic controllers has long plagued U.S. airline executives, and the FAA is scrambling to hire more.
Delta Air Lines on Thursday reported better-than-expected third-quarter results and predicted a more profitable year-end than analysts expected.
