Former air traffic controller Michael Pearson explains where Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy can find help fixing the FAA and ties the ongoing problems back to former President Barack Obama and his administration in “The Bottom Line.”
While air traffic operations and flights are limited in the US due to the ongoing government shutdown, a former air traffic controller shares a possible solution to get airports functioning normally again.
“The mess that Secretary Duffy is left with is unfortunately in a situation where he is dependent on people at the FAA – the very same people who have spent the last thirty years creating the mess, essentially a failed NextGen program, spending billions of dollars and wasting and stealing money,” Michael Pearson said on The Bottom Line on Thursday.
“Secretary Duffy needs to break away from the old FAA deep state bureaucrats who created this mess,” he continued, “and get some outside advice on how to really fix this.” There are people who can do that. He certainly won’t find the answers and fish in the same well where the deceit and fraud came from.”
Starting Friday, 40 of the busiest airports in the U.S. will see a 10% drop in flights after the FAA announced it is forcing airlines to cut back due to the strain on air traffic controllers during the shutdown.
TURBULENCE AHEAD: CHARTS SHOW HOW THE SHUTDOWN IS DISRUPTING US AIRPORTS
The shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, has forced about 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration agents to work without pay.
A Delta Air Lines aircraft takes off near an FAA air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday, November 6, 2025. (Getty Images)
Pearson said the pressure on air traffic controllers began during the Obama administration.
“DEI ideologues … decided that the color of the air traffic controller was more important than the competence of the air traffic controller,” he said. “This happened from 2011 through 2014. So the 3,000 to 3,500 air traffic controllers that we need, and that we have needed for over a decade, are directly related and correlated to the disastrous policies of the Obama administration.”
National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels discusses the reduction in air traffic during the government shutdown on “America Reports.”
“That leads to fatigue. You have 3,500 fewer traffic controllers, some of the major facilities are understaffed, not all, but some are,” Pearson added. “But I’m sure in some facilities the inspectors worked six days a week, eight to 10 hours a day.”
The auditors should not blame current leaders for the closure, he argued, but rather the “deep roots” in the FAA, “all the way to the top of the organization.”
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“Outnumbered” describes expected cuts to air travel as the Trump administration looks to ease pressure on air traffic controllers as the government shutdown continues.
“The Trump administration has gotten itself into an absolute mess, and they’re going to have to talk to individuals and get people from outside the Beltway who know how to fix this if they ever want to succeed. I do believe they’re trying to do the right things. I don’t believe they’re going in the right direction right now because again, they’re relying on old people who have caused the problems,” Pearson explained.
“And a perfect example is that four to five months ago, one of them told Duffy at a press conference that the system could be fixed in two years. That’s insanity. No one in the industry, or even outside the industry, who knows how the FAA works will believe that to be true.”
