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Duffy Holds a Press Conference at O'Hare International Airport, Nov. 11, 2025

November 11, 2025 · US Department of Transportation · 0:24:27

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy held a press conference at O’Hare International Airport, in the Department of Transportation’s November 11, 2025 upload, alongside the official who runs the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, as Duffy introduced him. Duffy said the previous three days — Saturday, Sunday, and Monday — had brought significant controller staffing shortages, cancellations, and delays, but that Tuesday was much better: staffing triggers had fallen from 81 on Saturday to four, as he stated the comparison, which he took as a sign controllers were seeing an end to the shutdown and coming back in.

He put the longer problem plainly: controller retirements had risen from about four a day to 15 to 20 a day, and the system was about 2,000 controllers short, as he stated the figures — a gap he said would outlast the shutdown coverage. On the mitigation in place, he said flights had been reduced 4 percent on Saturday and a further 2 percent that day, to 6 percent of flights in the airspace, and that the restrictions would stay until the staffing data justified lifting them. On pay, he said controllers would receive 70 percent of their back pay within 24 to 48 hours after the government reopened, with the remaining 30 percent about a week later, as he stated the timeline, and he urged controllers to come to work.

Why it matters

The O’Hare briefing is the shutdown aviation story told from inside a tower: the daily staffing-trigger count, the retirement surge, and the flight-reduction ladder are the three numbers by which Duffy’s department managed the closure’s final days — and the 2,000-controller shortage is the figure his hiring and academy surge has to close after it.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the 6 percent flight reduction in place on November 11, 2025, and the stated back-pay timeline of 70 percent within 24 to 48 hours of reopening. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, “U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Holds Press Conference at O’Hare International Airport” (official upload, embedded above). Remarks and figures as delivered by Secretary Duffy at the press conference.