Two candidates running to lead the National Air Traffic Controllers Association are pushing back on comments from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that placed at least some of the blame for recent flight delays and cancellations on controllers calling out sick.
In a post on X on Friday, Duffy linked disruptions in the Northeast to call-outs and bad weather.
“For any travelers flying in and out of the Northeast – please be prepared for delays and cancellations due to controllers calling out sick on top of difficult weather patterns,” he said. “When roughly 40-60% of controllers call out sick at multiple facilities in the New York region, we have to delay flights to maintain the safety of the airspace.”
Nicholas Marangos and Stephen Brown, who are running for NATCA president and executive vice president, respectively, hit back at that assertion in a statement shared on social media.
“When patently false claims are made about our profession, our members, or the state of the National Airspace System, we cannot sit idly by and hope the truth wins out on its own,” the statement read. “It won’t.”
The candidates argued that controllers have demonstrated incredible resilience for years despite chronic understaffing, “failed workforce planning,” and leadership decisions “that have left zero margin.”
Just recently, they said, an “equipment outage” at Minneapolis Center forced it to go “ATC zero.”
There was no public statement after that incident blaming the infrastructure or highlighting the risks of consolidation, Marangos and Brown said, nor was there an acknowledgement of the “mismanagement and lack of funding” that have created a situation where equipment failures can cripple the NAS.
“And who saved the day when the shiny new equipment failed?” they added. “Controllers. Human beings. The single most important element of the safe and efficient operation of the NAS is the controller… Yet they try to blame us. They try to shame a couple of controllers for their contractually protected use of sick leave. A couple of controllers who have been working some of the busiest airspace in the world, 60 hours per week, for years.”
The candidates did not say if Duffy’s figures for ATC call-outs at facilities in the New York area were inaccurate.
Data from FlightAware shows some Northeast airports, including LaGuardia Airport (KLGA), Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR), and John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK), saw more flight cancellations and delays than usual on Friday. Those issues eased over the weekend, however.