Air traffic controllers have slammed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s claims that high rates of controller sick calls have led to days of delays and disruption across the Northeast, saying that “patently false” allegations have been made against overworked and understaffed staffers who oversee the busiest and most complex airspace system in the world.
Just hours after Duffy laid the blame on air traffic chaos across the Northeast on controllers calling out sick in the New York area, two nominees hoping to lead the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) hit back in a strongly worded statement.
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.
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) August 7, 2026
When roughly 40-60% of controllers call out sick at multiple facilities in the New York region, we… pic.twitter.com/h4nlKPyRMm
Nicholas Marangos and Stephen Brown, who are running to become the union’s president and executive vice president, respectively, blasted: “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. It won’t.”
While severe Summer weather has been the root cause of many delays and cancellations in the Northeast, Duffy said in a post on X on Saturday: “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.”
Duffy added: “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.”
On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned that ‘streamlined operations’ in the Northeast would continue, with the agency noting that so-called staffing triggers had been activated at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, as well as at a major air traffic control center in Philadelphia.
“The United States operates the busiest and most complex airspace in the world. Yet according to the Department of Transportation, if a handful of controllers take sick leave, the entire system unravels. And somehow… that’s the controllers’ fault?” asked Marangos and Brown rhetorically in their no-holds-barred statement.
“No. That is the result of 30-plus years of chronic understaffing, failed workforce planning, and leadership decisions that have left zero margin,” the statement added.
Of course, Duffy has made much of the fact that under the Trump administration, major efforts are underway to hire more controllers and end chronic staffing shortages. Marangos and Brown, however, appear unconvinced.
“Controllers have spent decades working mandatory overtime, six-day workweeks, rotating shift work, holidays, nights, weekends, you name it,” they added.
“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.”
“All of this comes after the FAA recently reduced its own controller staffing targets by more than 2,000 – a decision that simply lowers the definition of ‘fully staffed’ instead of solving the staffing crisis itself.”
Meanwhile, when an equipment outage forced Minneapolis Center to go ‘ATC Zero’ (effectively shutting down the airspace), Marangos and Brown point out that there was no similar statement from administration officials.
NATCA has, until now, remained pretty silent over administration claims about sickouts and staffing. Officially, that’s still the case.
What Marangos and Brown are doing is positioning themselves as the candidates who will transform NATCA into a union that stands up for controllers’ rights, fighting misinformation, and “aggressively communicating what this job actually requires.”
