Air Traffic Controllers Juggling Planes and Second Jobs

Nov 10, 2025

Five weeks into the government shutdown, air traffic controllers are still working without pay. Struggling to pay their bills, rent or mortgage, and put food on the table, hundreds of controllers across the U.S. are driving for Uber and Lyft, delivering food, or working in restaurants to try to make ends meet.

One controller explained that most days he works a shift from 4 a.m.to 10 a.m. stocking ice cream and frozen vegetables at a local supermarket. Then he heads straight to the airport, where he directs traffic from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Air traffic controllers are not eligible to collect unemployment benefits during the shutdown because they are still employed, even though they are not getting paid.

Even before the shutdown, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) was short some 3,500 controllers. As a result, many controllers in the busiest airspaces were already working 10 hour days, six days a week, leaving little time for a second job.

All this means that air traffic controllers are exhausted and potentially distracted by just trying to survive. Controllers themselves say the shutdown is adding risk to the system.

“It does degrade that margin of safety if a bunch of people are sick and not at work and I’m having to do their jobs along with my own,” explained a controller who handles traffic around a major airport.

Another said, “It’s clear that the government only pays lip service to the value of our profession. Otherwise, why would they jeopardize hundreds of thousands of people’s lives every day this way?”

Air traffic controllers are working overtime without pay while Congress is getting paid for not working. Fire Congress and pay controllers!