Orlando airport experiences flight delays due to lack of air traffic controllers

Silas Morgan, Orlando Sentinel on Oct 30, 2025

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Flights into and out of Orlando International Airport were delayed Thursday night because there were no available air traffic controllers, according to federal aviation advisories.

One of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s advisories said the airport was under a ground delay program from 10 p.m. through 3 a.m. Friday because of staffing issues.

Passengers can expect average delays of nearly three hours, another advisory said, with the longest delay expected to be nearly 12 hours.

The airport’s website showed numerous flight delays, with one Southwest flight from Orlando to Washington, D.C. that was expected to leave at 8:45 p.m. rescheduled for a 1:16 a.m. departure. It also showed a Spirit flight coming in from Newark, N.J. expected at 8:45 p.m. first delayed until after midnight and then canceled.

The FAA said in its advisories that it expected that at some point Thursday no arriving flights would be able to land at Florida’s busiest airport because it wouldn’t have any certified air traffic controllers available.

A spokesperson for the airport didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The federal government shutdown means air traffic controllers, Transportation Security Administration workers and other federal airport employees are working without pay, and that has raised the prospect of people calling in sick and leaving the airport understaffed.

An email sent to the FAA for comment received an automatic reply saying the agency is not responding to routine media inquiries due to a lapse in funding.

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