WASHINGTON, January 29, 2026 – The following statement is attributable to Airlines for America (A4A):

Every hour that we get closer to another government shutdown, we increase our urgent calls for Congress to pass its funding bill for the FAA as well as the Aviation Funding Solvency Act (H.R. 6086) and the Aviation Funding Stability Act (S. 1045) to ensure critical FAA employees, including air traffic controllers, will get paid during a shutdown. Both H.R. 6086 and S. 1045 are commonsense bills that have bipartisan support and use funds that have already been paid into the system.

Congress knows firsthand the important role that ATC has in keeping our skies safe, and the FAA has noted that shutdowns now create safety issues that are simply not acceptable. The FAA’s safety mission is too important to be subjected to an unpredictable and unstable process.

Also, Congress needs to understand the real-world consequences that impact the American public if planes cannot fly due to a shutdown. As we saw three months ago, shutdowns place significant strain on the entire aviation industry, impacting travelers, shippers and the federal employees who keep our aviation system safe. The last shutdown—the longest in our nation’s history—negatively impacted more than 6 million passengers and had an economic impact of $7 billion—more than $150 million per day. This hurts consumers, companies and our country.

After last year’s shutdown, the American public was assured that Congress would not use aviation as a political pawn again. They need to stay true to their word.

We call on bipartisan, bicameral leadership, appropriators and authorizers to take immediate action and pass these solutions to prevent shutdowns from impacting air travel for Americans.

Congress, keep America flying by passing H.R. 6086 and S. 1045.