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US air traffic controllers are more and more seeking additional employment and reporting ill, as they continue to work without pay during the federal closure, the transport chief has announced.

"The controllers are wearing thin," the official told a news outlet on Sunday, as some flights were grounded on the Californian coast due to staffing shortages.

After the government shut down on 1 October, air traffic controllers, who are deemed critical staff, were instructed to keep doing their duties uncompensated.

But a number have been absent, causing terminals to halt or reduce their plane traffic, which has exacerbated setbacks due to weather and other issues.

Over 3,000 American flights were postponed on Sunday, and Duffy said he anticipates the circumstances to grow worse.

"I am seeing the stress," he remarked in an discussion on Sunday Morning Futures, adding that he had spoken to multiple professionals to listen to their concerns firsthand.

"They are pursuing second jobs, they're out there searching, 'Should I work for Uber, can I find another source of earnings to make ends meet?'" he added.

The secretary further mentioned that on the previous day 22 alerts at airfields indicated travel would be held up due to a lack of workers - one of the highest since the closure started.

The American federal closure reached its twenty-sixth day on the weekend, making it the second most extended shutdown in history.

Duffy has consistently cautioned that flight authorities would reduce the quantity of planes in the sky if there is a deficit of security staff.

In his conversation, he declined to respond straightforwardly when questioned if it was secure to travel by air in the United States, and instead issued a personal plea to controllers.

"I need my controllers focused on the flight paths, not on the monetary matters at their households," the official stated.

On that day, some planes were stopped at Los Angeles International Airport due to employee deficits, leading to disruption at the fifth-busiest terminal in the nation and one of the busiest in the globe, as well as other flights stretching north to the metropolis of Oakland, California.

The FAA alert was issued at 08:45 in the morning on Sunday. Numerous trips were operating normally before noon.

Flights at Newark Airport, though, were delayed an average of 82 minutes due to staffing shortages, and the FAA said Dallas Fort-Worth, the second-busiest airfield in the US, could encounter difficulties from reduced staff later in the day.

The agency warned travelers in California to check with carriers about revised flight schedules.

The issue comes ahead of Game 3 of the World Series, which is scheduled in LA on Monday night, and approximately four weeks before the Thanksgiving break, among the peak times to travel by air in the United States.

Pressure on US air travel helped end a government shutdown in two thousand nineteen. Back then, the halt had reached its fifth week and affected flight services, including pilot training.

It prompted several flight controllers to remain absent on the same day on January 25, 2019, briefly halting movement at LaGuardia Airport in New York.

That same day, Donald Trump, who at the time was in his initial presidency as leader, agreed to sign a short-term spending bill, bringing an end to the government shutdown after 35 days.