By JOSH FUNK and RIO YAMAT, AP Transportation and Airlines Writers

The federal government shutdown has entered its second week, and already shortages of air traffic controllers have strained operations and disrupted flights at some U.S. airports.

Reagan National Airport became the latest this week to report delays because of staffing issues Wednesday. But earlier in the week there were problems at airports in Chicago, Newark, Denver and Nashville, and the tower even had to shut down in Burbank, California.

Experts, as well as union leaders representing air traffic controllers and security screeners, warn that the impact could grow significantly worse if the shutdown continues and employees start to miss paychecks.

A plane takes off near the air traffic control tower at Harry Reid International Airport, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Here’s what to know about your rights as a passenger and what you can do if delays and cancellations start piling up:

Check before going to the airport

It is better to be stuck at home or in a hotel than to be stranded in an airport terminal, so use the airline’s app or flight websites to make sure that your flight is still on before heading to the airport. This FAA site can be checked to see if there are widespread delays at your airport.

Kyle Potter, executive editor of Thrifty Traveler, cautioned that it can be hard to get compensation when there are problems.

“In the United States, Americans have shockingly few rights as travelers. When things go wrong, it’s really left up to the airline industry to decide what it means to do right by customers,” Potter said.

My flight was canceled. Now what?

If you are already at the airport, it is time to find another flight. Get in line to speak to a customer service representative, and call or go online to connect to the airline’s reservations staff. It also helps to reach out on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, because airlines might respond quickly there.

Airlines will rebook you on a later flight for no additional charge. The good news right now is that this is not a peak travel time, so travelers stand a better chance of finding seats. But the busy holiday season is right around the corner with Thanksgiving next month and Christmas in December. At those peak times, passengers might have to wait days for a seat on a new flight.

Can I ask to be booked on another airline?

You can, but airlines aren’t required to put you on another carrier’s flight. Some airlines, including the biggest ones except Southwest and the discount airlines, say they can put you on a partner airline, but even then it’s often hit or miss. Jeff Klee, CEO of CheapAir.com, has recommended researching alternate flights while you wait to talk to an agent.

Am I owed a refund?

If you no longer want to take the trip, or have found another way of getting to your destination, the airline is legally required to refund your money, even if you bought a non-refundable ticket. It doesn’t matter why the flight was canceled.

“If the airline cancels your flight, you can say, ‘Alright. I will take a refund and get my money back,’ ” Potter said. “The important piece is that you get your payment returned to you. You’re not just settling for an airline voucher that may expire in a year or less.”

You are also entitled to a refund of any bag fees, seat upgrades or other extras that you didn’t get to use.

Can I get compensation?

U.S. airlines are not required to pay additional cash compensation and cover lodging and meals for passengers who are stranded, even if a flight cancellation is the airline’s fault.

The Biden administration proposed a rule that would have changed that and required airlines to pay passengers for delays and cancellations in more circumstances. But the Trump administration scrapped that last month and the airlines praised him for doing so.

Related Articles

Last of the 10 New Orleans jail escapees from May is captured in Georgia, authorities say

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

Michigan haunted house teaches actors to ‘scare the pee out of’ guests

El Paso bishop brings Pope Leo XIV desperate letters from migrants in crosshairs of US crackdown

The MacArthur Foundation’s ‘genius’ fellows: The full 2025 class list

Travel insurance might help if you bought a policy when you booked or used a travel credit card that offers that product. But Potter said you shouldn’t assume you will be covered even if you do have insurance. Check the fine print to see if you are covered in situations like this when a shortage of workers causes problems.

What airlines will cover

Each airline has its own policy. The U.S. Department of Transportation has a site that lets consumers see the commitments that each airline makes for refunds and covering other expenses when flights are canceled or significantly delayed.

Other tips

If lots of flights are canceled, airline agents will soon be swamped. If you are in a group and one person belongs to a higher level of the airline’s frequent-flyer program, use the number associated with that person to call the airline. You also can try calling your airline’s international help number — usually available online — because those agents can make changes in your itinerary too.

Be nice. The agent you’re talking to is probably dealing with other frustrated travelers, too, and screaming at the agent won’t make them want to help you. The cancellation isn’t their fault.

Consider other options

If these problems do become more widespread, you could consider whether it makes sense to travel by train or car or bus instead, but there’s really no way to predict when and where a staff shortage might happen. And the ongoing shortage of controllers is so critical that even a small number of absences can cause problems.

Potter said the shutdown is different from when a single airline is having problems and travelers can just pick another airline. This is creating problems for entire airports at once.

“This is the entire airport-airline infrastructure,” Potter said. “As these problems expand and spread the longer the shutdown drags on, it’s unlikely that there will be one airline running on time if the rest of the them are failing. It’s going to affect the entire system over time.”

A 22-year-old Forest Lake man who officials say posed as a teen to enroll and attend classes at White Bear Lake Area High School last month allegedly received nude photos from one girl, and several parents reported possible sexual assaults, according to a search warrant affidavit.

A Washington County judge signed off on a search warrant for the man’s phone on Oct. 1, the same day he was booked into the county jail for violating probation in July in a 2023 case in which he sent a 15-year-old girl a nude picture of himself through Snapchat.

The affidavit, written by a White Bear Lake investigator and filed in court Monday, says the mother of a girl who attends the high school reported Sept. 29 that her daughter recognized a jail booking photo that was circulating on Snapchat.

The mugshot was of a 22-year-old man with a different name than what he went by at school. The report led to an immediate investigation by both the school district and police.

Multiple girls have come forward to report that the man had been communicating with them through text messages and social media, the affidavit said.

“A school resource officer is following up with an allegation that (the man) received nude photos from a juvenile female,” the affidavit continued.

The court document did not provide details into the parents’ reports of “possible sexual assault incidents” involving the man.

The police investigator wrote the man’s phone “will contain texts, social media messages and photos that would likely show evidence of (criminal sexual conduct), soliciting a minor and child pornography crimes.”

The phone also could include cellphone location data “further providing evidence into some of these incidents,” the affidavit said.

The man was enrolled in the district from Sept. 3 to 29, the day after he was arrested on warrants from a past theft conviction in Anoka County and the probation violation.

The Pioneer Press is not naming the man because he has not been charged with any crimes relating to his time as a high school student.

Last week, White Bear Lake Police Chief Dale Hager said the man is under investigation for fraud, forgery and unlawful conduct involving interaction with minors.

White Bear Lake Area Schools Superintendent Wayne Kazmierczak said in an email to families the man skirted around the enrollment process by claiming he was a homeless youth and by using a birth certificate from another country that indicated he was 18.

Kazmierczak said the man certified on district forms that he was a homeless unaccompanied youth, a designation that requires school districts to follow the McKinney Vento Act. The federal law mandates the immediate enrollment of eligible students even if they cannot provide standard documentation such as academic records, immunization or proof of residency.

Related Articles

Last of the 10 New Orleans jail escapees from May is captured in Georgia, authorities say

Hugo man admits to groping teen at neighborhood pool

Trump says Illinois governor and Chicago mayor should be jailed as they oppose Guard deployment

Impaired driving suspected in deadly crash of rural Minnesota fire truck

Man charged in St. Paul hit-and-run that left woman critically injured

The birth certificate, which listed a phony name of Kelvin C. Perry Jr., included an authentic watermarking and official stamps/seals, according to Kazmierczak, adding there “was no indication that the document was anything less than authentic.”

The man also registered for football on Sept. 8 and participated in three practices, Kazmierczak said.

The man pleaded guilty to the probation violation on Oct. 2, according to court records, which do not disclose what the violation entailed. A judge then ordered him to complete three days of work service, and he was released from custody the same day.

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first week is the easy one. The pressure to resolve the federal shutdown will gradually build as the shutdown enters its second week — and as government workers miss paychecks and important programs run out of money.

Here are some pressure points ahead that could have a big influence on resolving the shutdown.

Missed paychecks

The next payday for the nation’s military service members is Oct. 15. The U.S. has about 1.3 million active-duty service members, and the prospect of those troops going without pay is a big focal point when lawmakers on Capitol Hill discuss the shutdown’s negative impact.

“We have young airmen and soldiers deployed around the world right now defending our freedom and they’ve left their young families at home,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said. “They are dependent upon that check on October 15th.”

Paydays for civilian federal workers depend on the agency. The Bipartisan Policy Center, a non-partisan think tank, says a majority of civilian workers will see a partial paycheck arrive between Oct. 10-15, reflecting days worked before the shutdown began.

Civilians at the Department of Defense and Health and Human Services, along with a few other agencies, will experience their first entirely missed check on Oct. 24, while the majority of other federal workers will experience their first missed paycheck on Oct. 28. That includes air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration agents manning airport security checkpoints.

One paycheck missed will be a big deal. Two paychecks missed will bring the political pressure to a boil.

Air travel

For many Americans, the shutdown is a distant event that doesn’t impact them personally. But that can quickly change for the flying public.

The nation’s longest partial shutdown in President Donald Trump’s first term was resolved soon after flights were halted at LaGuardia and delayed at other major airports because of a shortage of unpaid air traffic controllers who called in sick.

Related Articles

IRS to furlough nearly half of its workforce as shutdown enters second week

Inside the high-stakes battle over vaccine injury compensation, autism and public trust

Where jobs are scarce, over 1 million people could dodge Trump’s Medicaid work rules

Staffing shortages cause more US flight delays as government shutdown reaches 8th day

Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee threatens rural schools and hospitals reliant on immigrant workers

There has already been a rash of delays at a number of airports across the country. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said there has been an uptick in air traffic controllers calling out sick since the shutdown began. The biggest problems so far have been at the smaller airports in Burbank, California, and Nashville, Tennessee, with delays stretching longer than two hours, but those didn’t create massive ripple effects nationwide.

But there have also been delays at the major hubs in Chicago, Newark, New Jersey, and Denver because of staffing problems, and more problems are possible because of the ongoing shortage of controllers. Even the absence of a handful of controllers in a key location could cause major disruptions. Earlier this year, the absence of just five controllers who took leave after a radar outage, snarled traffic in Newark.

“This is one that is just so intensely felt by travelers who might not even know about what the government shutdown is, or the mechanics or the politics surrounding it,” said Rachel Snyderman, managing director of economic policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center. “You can go and expect a 30-minute line at Transportation Security Administration and it turns into three hours.”

Duffy and the head of the union that represents controllers said the shutdown is adding significant worries for workers who already deal with stressful tasks.

“They are coming to work under an increasingly unsafe scenario because in safety we know the first rule is to remove all distractions in order to keep things safe,” said Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants. “What could be more of a distraction than not getting a paycheck?”

Food assistance

The $8 billion Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, provides vouchers to buy infant formula as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and other healthy staples that are often out of financial reach for low-income households.

The program is being kept afloat by a $150 million contingency fund, but experts say it could run dry quickly.

After that, states could step in to pay for the program and seek reimbursement when funding finally passes, but not all states say they can afford to do so. Nearly 7 million women and young children rely on nutrition and health support through the program.

The White House said Tuesday it will use tariff revenue to bolster the program, but did not provide details on how such a transfer would work.

The National WIC Association, an advocacy group, said that any effort to keep WIC operational is welcome, but critical details remain unknown, including how much funding will be provided, when it will be distributed, and how long it will last.

“WIC needs full-year funding, not just temporary lifelines,” said Georgia Machell, the group’s president and CEO.

Meanwhile, the White House says SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, will continue for the month of October, before the program’s funds, including contingency, are spent. About 41.7 million people per month, or some 12% of U.S. residents, participate in the program.

Tourism and parks

The Smithsonian Institution’s museums and the National Zoo remain open through Oct. 11. Afterward, they will close to the public. The shuttering will serve as a stark reminder of the shutdown’s impact on the thousands of daily visitors to the nation’s capital.

Meanwhile, the National Park Service says on its website that the parks “remain as accessible as possible during the federal government shutdown. However, some services may be limited or unavailable.”

More than a quarter of national park sites, many of them historical properties, are not accessible because they have gates that can be locked, while larger parks that don’t have gates remain effectively open to the public, said Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of the National Parks Conservation Association.

The U.S. Travel Association, a trade group, estimates that the shutdown has already cost the nation’s travel industry $1 billion in lost spending.

“The longer this drags on, the worse the cascade of damage will be — for local communities, for small businesses and for the country,” said Geoff Freeman, the group’s president and CEO.

Economic damage

Shutdowns of the federal government usually don’t leave much economic damage. But this one could be different, in part because Trump is threatening to use the standoff to eliminate thousands of government jobs.

Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, estimates that the shutdown and temporary loss of income for federal workers could shave 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points from the nation’s annual growth rate in the fourth quarter for each week the government is closed. Some of that will be recovered once it reopens.

The shutdown is also leading to pauses and delays in the collection of economic data, which makes things difficult for the Federal Reserve as it makes its next interest rate decision. The White House says the shutdown has implications for decision-making by businesses, as uncertainty tends to lead to lower business investment.

Associated Press staff writer Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Nebraska.

Aproximadamente 150.000 niños de la ciudad de Nueva York van al colegio en autobús, entre ellos unos 66.000 estudiantes con discapacidades y estudiantes que viven en refugios. Así que cuando hay un problema con el servicio de autobuses, estos grupos suelen ser los más afectados.

Solo en las primeras semanas del año escolar 2025-2026, se han producido 4.476 casos de autobuses que no han llegado y 8.068 retrasos y averías de autobuses, según informaron las autoridades municipales. (Dogora Sun / Shutterstock.com)

Este artículo se publicó originalmente en inglés el 6 de octubre. Traducido por Daniel Parra. Read the English version here.

Con el inicio del nuevo curso escolar el mes pasado, los emblemáticos autobuses escolares amarillos vuelven a circular por las calles de la ciudad de Nueva York. Sin embargo, algunos se retrasan.

La coalición Road to Better Busing, formada por defensores y padres afectados por los retrasos de los autobuses, se está movilizando para conseguir mejoras.

Nueva York es el distrito escolar más grande del país, por lo que también cuenta con el sistema de autobuses escolares más grande. Aproximadamente 150.000 niños viajan en estos autobuses, la mayoría de los cuales son latinos y afroamericanos, según investigadores.

Alrededor de 66.000 alumnos que utilizan el autobús son estudiantes con discapacidades y estudiantes que viven en refugios temporales, incluidos los que se alojan en el sistema de refugios de la ciudad. Cuando hay un problema con el servicio de autobuses, estos grupos suelen ser los que más sufren.

“Cada año, al comenzar el año escolar, hay una cosa con la que podemos contar: nuestros teléfonos no pararán de sonar con llamadas de familias cuyos hijos no pueden ir al colegio debido a fallos en el servicio de autobuses escolares”, afirmó Randi Levine, directora de políticas de Advocates for Children of New York, durante unas declaraciones en una manifestación frente a la alcaldía a finales de septiembre.

Durante el año escolar 2023-2024, en una red de 9.000 rutas de autobuses escolares que recorren las calles de la ciudad, se produjeron 80.000 retrasos. Solo en las primeras semanas del año escolar 2025-2026, se han producido 4.476 casos de autobuses que no han llegado y 8.068 retrasos y averías de autobuses hasta la semana pasada, según informaron las autoridades municipales.

La mayoría de los problemas de esta última categoría son retrasos (7.629), mientras que en septiembre se produjeron 439 averías, según el departamento de Escuelas Públicas de la Ciudad de Nueva York (NYCPS por sus siglas en inglés y anteriormente conocido como el Departamento de Educación).

El NYCPS advirtió que la Oficina de Transporte Escolar (OPT por sus siglas en inglés) gestiona el sistema de seguimiento de los retrasos y averías de los autobuses escolares, y señaló que puede haber errores en los datos.

Cuando se producen estos incidentes, los padres pueden presentar quejas de varias maneras: utilizar el ServiceNow para llamar al servicio de asistencia de OPT (que ofrece servicios de traducción en varios idiomas), utilizar SupportHub para enviarlas en línea o enviar un correo electrónico a NYCPS.

“Trabajamos diligentemente para resolver cualquier problema que las familias tengan con sus servicios, de modo que todos los estudiantes lleguen a la escuela a tiempo”, afirmó un portavoz del departamento de educación. “Por eso hemos introducido un moderno sistema de seguimiento por GPS para los autobuses, hemos ampliado las herramientas de comunicación con las familias y hemos mejorado la planificación de las rutas para satisfacer mejor las necesidades de los estudiantes”.

Sin embargo, Gothamist informó a principios de septiembre que el GPS de los autobuses escolares de la ciudad de Nueva York tiene fallos: los conductores y las empresas de autobuses no se conectan al sistema de forma sistemática, que además depende de datos facilitados por los propios usuarios.

Mia Greenidge es directora de servicios de transición para jóvenes en IncludeNYC, una organización que ayuda a jóvenes con discapacidades, y madre de un niño de 5 años que va al jardín en el servicio de autobús especializado. Según cuenta, durante los primeros días de clase llevaron a su hijo a la escuela equivocada.

“Tuvimos suerte en esta situación”, dijo Greenidge, y explicó que su hijo fue llevado a la escuela correcta en 20 minutos. “La escuela a la que lo llevaron estaba a unas pocas cuadras [de la escuela correcta]”.

En otra ocasión, Greenidge dijo que su hijo estuvo en el autobús durante casi dos horas, a pesar de que vive a 30 minutos de su escuela. “Al intentar ponerse en contacto con la empresa de autobuses, con el despachador o con la dirección de la empresa, nunca pude hablar con nadie allí. Así que gran parte de la comunicación la mantuve con la escuela”, dijo.

Levine dijo que Advocates for Children of New York ha recibido muchas quejas sobre los servicios de autobús en lo que va de año escolar y que, en 40 casos, ha tenido que llamar al departamento de educación para resolver el problema.

Lori Podvesker, directora de políticas de discapacidad y educación de IncludeNYC, dijo que la organización ha observado un aumento del 20 por ciento en las quejas relacionadas con los autobuses en comparación con el mismo periodo del año pasado. De las 27 llamadas que recibió IncludeNYC sobre problemas de transporte, 13 eran sobre autobuses, dijo.

Por su parte, el departamento de educación afirmó que este mes ha recibido más quejas por autobuses que no han llegado que por autobuses que han llegado tarde: 4.476 y 4.270, respectivamente.

Los defensores y los padres afirman que los estudiantes sufren las consecuencias cuando llegan tarde al colegio o a casa. Pueden perder tanto tiempo de clase como servicios especializados. Greenidge cuenta que su hijo acude a terapia de análisis conductual aplicado después del colegio. Ella programa las citas con cierto margen, pero cuando los retrasos del autobús son largos, él acaba perdiéndolas.

“Eso cuesta dinero, porque cuando tienes que cancelar una sesión, igual te cobran”, afirma.

Otro problema es la duración del trayecto en autobús de muchos estudiantes. Parents to Improve School Transportation, una organización comunitaria que aboga por mejores servicios de autobús, compartió la historia de una familia cuyo hijo recorre en zigzag todo Manhattan durante más de dos horas, lo que hace que se orine durante el largo trayecto. 

Durante muchos años, defensores y padres han señalado el contrato que no ha cambiado desde hace 46 años entre el NYCPS y las empresas de autobuses escolares, así como la escasez de conductores, como las causas fundamentales del problema. 

Sara Catalinotto, cofundadora de Parents to Improve School Transportation, le dijo a City Limits que la ciudad necesita reclutar y retener mejor a los conductores, y debería alentar a más empresas a competir por los contratos. Los defensores también piden a la ciudad que no prorrogue los contratos de transporte escolar sin exigir una rendición de cuentas.

“Como organización centrada en la educación, queremos dedicar nuestro tiempo a defender lo que ocurre dentro del aula, garantizando que los estudiantes tengan el apoyo que necesitan para prosperar. Pero, en cambio, nos vemos obligados a gastar nuestra energía luchando solo para asegurar que los estudiantes puedan llegar a la escuela”, dijo Levine a la multitud durante la manifestación de finales de septiembre. “Esto tiene que cambiar”.

Para ponerse en contacto con el reportero de esta noticia, escriba a Daniel@citylimits.org. Para ponerse en contacto con la editora, escriba a Jeanmarie@citylimits.org.

The post Comienza un nuevo año escolar, y con ello los retrasos de autobuses escolares appeared first on City Limits.