SFO Flight Delays Spike As Government Shutdown Causes Control Tower Staff Shortages: Report

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Air travel across the United States continues to be impacted, as the federal shutdown continues into its 35th day, and the situation may only get worse, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Hundreds of flights have been delayed over the past several days at San Francisco International Airport, along with a handful of cancellations, according to the Chronicle.

As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, 57 flights at San Francisco International Airport were delayed and one was canceled, according to FlightAware.

Control towers have been left short-staffed at airports across the country, including San Francisco International Airport. This has prompted the government to deliberately slow down air travel to preserve passengers' safety, according to the report.

“We will delay, we will cancel, any kind of flight across the national airspace to make sure people are safe,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ABC News. “There is a level of risk that gets injected into the system when we have a controller that’s doing two jobs instead of one.”

If the situation worsens, Duffy said, "we won't let people travel."

Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.