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American flight controllers are increasingly looking for second jobs and reporting ill, as they continue to work unpaid during the government shutdown, the transport chief has announced.

"These professionals are becoming strained," Sean Duffy told Fox News on Sunday, as some flights were halted on the California shoreline due to staffing shortages.

After the federal closure on October 1st, flight controllers, who are deemed essential workers, were instructed to keep doing their jobs without pay.

But some have been missing, causing terminals to halt or reduce their flight operations, which has exacerbated delays due to climate and other issues.

Over three thousand US flights were delayed on Sunday, and Duffy stated he anticipates the circumstances to grow worse.

"I am seeing the stress," he remarked in an interview on a weekend program, noting that he had spoken to multiple professionals to hear their concerns firsthand.

"They're taking second jobs, they're out there looking, 'Should I work for Uber, can I secure another source of income to cover expenses?'" he added.

Duffy added that on the previous day 22 alerts at airfields said flights would be delayed due to a shortage of workers - one of the highest after the shutdown began.

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

Duffy has repeatedly warned that aviation regulators would reduce the quantity of aircraft in the air if there is a shortage of safety personnel.

In his conversation, he would not answer directly when asked if it was secure to fly in the United States, and instead issued a direct appeal to the professionals.

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

On that day, certain flights were stopped at LAX due to staffing shortages, leading to disruption at the fifth-busiest terminal in the nation and one of the busiest in the globe, as well as additional travel extending north to the city of Oakland, California.

The Federal Aviation Administration alert was issued at 8:45 AM local time on Sunday. Many flights were operating normally before noon.

Travel at Newark Liberty International Airport, however, were delayed an mean of over an hour due to personnel issues, and the FAA said Dallas Fort-Worth, the second-busiest airfield in the US, could encounter problems from reduced staff in the afternoon.

The FAA advised passengers in the state to consult airlines about revised flight schedules.

The issue precedes Game 3 of the World Series, which is due to be played in LA on Monday evening, and approximately four weeks prior to the Thanksgiving break, among the peak periods to travel by air in the US.

Strain on US air travel helped end a federal closure in 2019. At the time, the shutdown had entered its fifth week and affected flight services, including pilot training.

It prompted several air traffic controllers to remain absent on the identical date on 25 January 2019, briefly halting movement at New York's LaGuardia airport.

On that date, the former president, who at the period was in his first term as leader, agreed to sign a short-term spending bill, bringing an end to the government shutdown after thirty-five days.