Empty cockpits, canceled flights, crowded airports: Congress tackles pilot shortage

• Airlines reduced staffing when demand for flights plummeted at the beginning of the pandemic and now are facing challenges increasing staffing levels as more travelers are heading to airports.
• In addition to a shortage of pilots, there is currently 10% fewer fully certified air traffic controllers than a decade ago, leading to more and more delays at airports nationwide.
• Lawmakers this summer are looking to address the shortages as Congress debates Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding.
• “When you’re sitting on a tarmac, hoping the plane takes off or sitting at a gate waiting on a pilot, nobody asks is the pilot a Democrat or Republican,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

AJ Sick sat in the Denver airport for 11 hours.  

The 27-year-old from the Chicago suburbs was stranded on a June afternoon after traveling to Colorado for a wedding. His flight was scheduled to leave on a Sunday at 3 p.m. but kept getting delayed − not from bad weather but because of a missing flight crew.