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.
The FAA said it was slowing traffic in and out of the airports because of staffing problems at two of its air-traffic control facilities on the East Coast, one near Washington and one in Jacksonville, Florida. 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.
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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.
“The president has been briefed and we are monitoring the ongoing delays at some airports,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary. “We are in regular contact with officials at the Department of Transportation and the FAA.”
In Washington, Democratic leaders pounced on President Donald 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.