Flight delays have always been a huge issue for travelers since the start of mainstream air travel. The cause for these recent delays, however, is a different story than before. Air traffic controllers are taking multitudes of sick days and looking for second jobs because of the government shutdown.

The government shutdown made many government-funded departments lose their pay, forcing departments deemed “non essential” to work without a salary. According to the BBC, the San Francisco International Airport has suffered increasing numbers of delays because of the shortage of workers. Without the safety staff, planes can’t land, and without the packing staff, the planes can’t take off. Air traffic controllers help planes navigate the air safely, without them, planes have a chance to crash into each other and have no clue where to go.

With the government shutdown in play, many of the airport staff have quit and switched to lower paying jobs. They are getting paid in the first place, making their switch to a smaller job to stay afloat during the government shutdown. The Amazon Web Services (AWS) crash and the government shutdown both play parts in this conflict, with the AWS crash causing huge delays and the government shutdown causing air traffic workers to quit their jobs. According to FlightAware, there were 24,721 delays on October 27. As we thought that flights would be delayed for a while, Donald Trump signed a paying bill, effectively ending the government shutdown.

While the government shutdown affected multiple departments, many people from other countries had to go home but couldn’t because of the delays, making the airport problems one of the worst effects of the government shutdown.