Joel Rose

Some took on second jobs and many called out sick.

leading to staffing shortages at many air traffic control facilities.

But most controllers now seem to be back at work, with only a handful of staffing shortages reported in recent days.

Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.

Air traffic controllers received about 70 percent of the take-home pay they earned during the shutdown, according to the Department of Transportation.

They're supposed to get the rest later this month, including any overtime or shift differential pay they've earned.

Those can be significant sums because many controllers work six days a week with mandatory overtime.

Controllers had been required to work without pay since the shutdown began.

Some took on second jobs and many called out sick, leading to staffing shortages at many air traffic control facilities.

But most controllers now seem to be back at work, with only a handful of staffing shortages reported in recent days.

Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.

The reductions in air traffic at dozens of major airports will be lowered from 6 percent to 3 percent of flights through the weekend.

The Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration say that reflects improvements in staffing levels at air traffic facilities.

The FAA said the restrictions were necessary to keep the airspace safe as the agency grappled with widespread staffing shortages of air traffic controllers during the government shutdown.

But with the shutdown over, air traffic controllers have finally received some of the back pay they earned, and most are now back to work.

Airlines say they're confident they can ramp up quickly and should be able to return to their full schedules before Thanksgiving holiday travel begins.

Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.

Over this past weekend, the FAA reported staffing shortages at dozens of facilities at once, leading to some of the worst delays of the entire shutdown.

This week, the number of staffing shortages declined sharply to just a handful over the past few days, and that gave regulators some confidence that more controllers are coming to work.

But they say they will not lift these reductions completely until the safety data improves.