That pressure on the controllers were giving us numbers that were not troubling, but were concerning. So my job is to be preemptive

We had seen the rolling staffing triggers that come from air traffic controllers — one day it was L.A., another day it was in New York, Minneapolis, Atlanta — and so as we were looking at data, we were seeing increased numbers in some of…

As that data came in we decided to make the decisions we thought were appropriate

This is not political

If people want to question us, I would throw it back at them: open up the government

I have done all I can to minimize disruption in the airspace. I'm trying to get people where they want to go and get them there safely

We learned from that. And so now we look at data, and before it would become an issue, we try to assess the pressure and try to make moves before there could be adverse consequences.

There is going to be a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations.

You will see mass flight delays, you'll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it.

We are going to work with the airlines to do this in a systematic way.

Many of the controllers said, ‘A lot of us can navigate missing one paycheck. Not everybody, but a lot of us can. None of us can manage missing two paychecks,’

Let’s act first before the Democrats have a chance to do it destructively.

They only reinforce it. This was an election all about the high cost of things, very clearly, and it just increases the resolve that we need to bring costs down for our constituents.

U.S. may close parts of airspace if shutdown continues

There is going to be a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations.

I personally don’t have a problem with it.

We are forcing about 2.8 million federal workers to work. Military, law enforcement, people who write Social Security checks, air traffic controllers, keeping our skies safe.

It's not moving as many flights as possible, it's moving as many flights as possible safely.