Concerns about staffing at the Aurora air traffic control center and its impact on travel at Chicago airports after a recent hearing

CHICAGO (WLS) — The ABC7 I-Team has discovered that air travelers flying to and from Chicago’s main airports may face potential challenges as the busy Christmas schedule approaches.

That was the read from Washington Thursday as Congress and the FAA wrestle with thousands of open positions in U.S. control towers.

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Concerns have been raised regarding the understaffing of air traffic control positions at O’Hare and Midway, drawing attention from federal aviation authorities and relevant members of Congress. The shortage of personnel raises safety issues and prompts questions about why the federal government is struggling to adequately staff these crucial roles.

With holiday air travel anticipated to reach record levels, Thursday, December 19, is predicted to be the busiest travel day. While aircraft may be packed with passengers, control towers and radar facilities responsible for managing jet traffic are experiencing a lack of staffing.

As the I-Team first reported in November, at the regional Air Traffic Control Center in Aurora, current staffing is at only 82%. Some East Coast airports, including Newark where, Chicago-based United Airline has a hub, have had to delay and cancel flights because of FAA controller shortages.

“In the years immediately following the pandemic, we witnessed an alarming series of close calls in commercial aviation,” Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth said.

She chaired a subcommittee hearing in Washington Thursday focusing on dangerously low staffing in the towers and decaying equipment.

A new Government Accountability report says things are getting worse, not better.

“This is completely unacceptable. Air traffic facilities and radars need improvements,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz said. “Based on FAA data, the reliability of the FAA’s radar fleet is declining. The United States should be a leader in aviation technology. Sadly, this is often not the case.”

“The modernization of existing air traffic management infrastructure in the United States continues to fall behind peer countries and is straining from the continued operations and growth of conventional airspace users,” said Marc Scribner, Senior Transportation Policy Analyst for the Reason Foundation.

“There is no easy answer or quick fix. A snap of Iron Man’s fingers cannot fix this,” said Kevin Walsh with the Government Accountability Office. “This will be the work of many years and billions of dollars.”

Complicating things, the leader of the Federal Aviation Administration, Mike Whitaker, announced he is stepping down next month so President-elect Donald Trump can slate his own FAA administrator. One factor in the Trump replacement selection may be Elon Musk, who has been clashing with the FAA for slowing development on his Starship mega-rocket.