By Barbara Ortutay and Mirna Alsharif, Associated Press

Flight delays continued at U.S. airports Sunday amid air traffic controller shortages as the government shutdown entered its second month, with Newark airport in New Jersey experiencing delays of two to three hours.

New York City’s Emergency Management office said on X that Newark delays often ripple out to the region’s other airports.

Travelers flying to, from, or through New York “should expect schedule changes, gate holds, and missed connections. Anyone flying today should check flight status before heading to the airport and expect longer waits,” the social media post added.

At Harry Reid International Airport, flights have been generally on time, according to the website FlightAware, which tracks airline flights nationally and internationally.

Luke Nimmo, a spokesman for the Clark County Department of Aviation, said the airport hasn’t had issues with air traffic controllers or Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents not showing up for work. TSA employees are not being paid during the government shutdown.

“We haven’t had any issues with staffing,” Nimmo said. “Our flight operations were normal over the weekend.”  

Airport officials caution that delays at Reid Airport often happen because of issues at other airports.

On Tuesday morning, employees of MGM Resorts International dropped off 700 meals and personal care items for Las Vegas-based TSA workers. 

“The people in need the most right now are our airport employees,” MGM Resorts Senior Vice President John Flynn said. “So being able to put together 700 box lunches today, being able to bring over a bunch of hospitality and hotel supplies [helps] to get them through this tough time.”

MGM, which operates 10 Strip resorts, plans to bring another 700 meals to the airport on Friday. The airport also opened a food pantry for affected workers last month.

Meanwhile, George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Chicago O’Hare were seeing dozens of delays and one or two cancellations, along with major airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver and Miami, according to FlightAware.

As of Sunday evening, FlightAware said there were 4,295 delays and 557 cancellations of flights within, into or out of the U.S., not all related to controller shortages. In July, before the shutdown, about 69 percent of flights were on time and 2.5 percent were canceled.

On Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the U.S. might be forced to close parts of its airspace if staffing shortages amid the government shutdown continue.

The shutdown, which is dragging into its second month, has meant essential workers, including air traffic controllers, have been working without pay. This has led to a shortage of anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 controllers, according to Duffy.

Duffy has been warning that travelers will start to see more flight disruptions the longer controllers go without a paycheck.

“We work overtime to make sure the system is safe. And we will slow traffic down, you’ll see delays, we’ll have flights canceled to make sure the system is safe,” Duffy said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.

He also said he does not plan to fire air traffic controllers who don’t show up for work.

“Again when they’re making decisions to feed their families, I’m not going to fire air traffic controllers,” Duffy said. “They need support, they need money, they need a paycheck. They don’t need to be fired.”

Earlier in October, Duffy had warned air traffic controllers who had called in sick instead of working without a paycheck during the shutdown risked being fired. Even a small number of controllers not showing up for work is causing problems because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a critical shortage of them.

The FAA said Friday on X that nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers have been working without pay for weeks.

Staffing shortages can occur both in regional control centers that manage multiple airports and in individual airport towers, but they don’t always lead to flight disruptions. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, flight data showed strong on-time performance at most major U.S. airports for the month of October despite isolated staffing problems throughout the month.

Before the shutdown, the FAA was already dealing with a long-standing shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers.