Travelers flying out of Newark Liberty International, Philadelphia and LaGuardia airports encountered flight delays Friday due to staffing issues on the ground from workers calling out sick, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

The FAA website was reporting delays between 1 hour 30 minutes and 1 hour 45 minutes at Newark Liberty Airport at one point. By 12:30 p.m., those delays had dropped to an hour and were attributed to wind. Philadelphia International Airport had reported departure delays of 1 hour and 14 minutes, but those have dropped back to normal operations by 11 a.m. LaGuardia delays were averaging 1 hour 26 minutes.

"We have experienced a slight increase in sick leave at two facilities. We’ve mitigated the impact by augmenting staffing, rerouting traffic, and increasing spacing between aircraft when needed,” said Gregory Martion, an FAA spokesman. “The results have been minimal impacts to efficiency while maintaining consistent levels of safety in the national airspace system.”

The staffing problems were at air traffic centers in Jacksonville, Florida and a Washington D.C. center that controls high-altitude air traffic over seven states. Officials said staffing levels at the airports were “fine.” A ground stop was briefly issued at LaGuardia, but has since been lifted.

Port Authority officials said all three metro airports were affected.

Fliers at LaGuardia felt the brunt , with 47 cancellations and more than 580 delays, averaging over an hour, and representing over half of the daily flights at the airport, a Port Authority spokesman said.

Newark Liberty Airport had departure delays for much of the morning and into the afternoon exceeding one hour. At least 40 flights were cancelled, and nearly 300 have experienced delays, he said. JFK had over 230 delays, many caused by late arriving aircraft affected by the staff shortage.

Although staffing was reported back to normal by the FAA, residual delays are expected into the evening at LaGuardia, authority officials said.

Fliers can check delays at fly.faa.gov and they should check with airline carriers for more information.

The White House says President Donald Trump has briefed on airport delays amid the extended partial government shutdown.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement: “The President has been briefed and we are monitoring the ongoing delays at some airports. We are in regular contact with officials at the Department of Transportation and the FAA.”

Louis Di Paolo, a former Dumont councilman, said his JetBlue flight from Newark to West Palm Beach was among those delayed Friday morning.

“It was supposed to set out at 9:02 so we were delayed over an hour and a half," Di Paola said in a message to NJ Advance Media while his flight was en route to Florida. "(We were) on the tarmac for about an hour and a half. And the plane was a few minutes late coming to Newark because of the shutdown/lack of air traffic controllers. While we were sitting on the runway, the pilot apologized to all passengers and expressed his frustration with the shutdown”

He said passengers soon realized it was not an ordinary delay.

“We got a sense something was off when the pilot was giving the pre flight remarks - he stopped in the middle as if he had just heard the news and then it was just quiet," Di Paola said. “There was a lot of chatter among passengers, then everyone started turning on their TVs to watch the news."

Huge flight delays at Laguardia, Newark, and Philadelphia airports because of "staffing" issues, FAA reports. https://t.co/XQ0cMTlnDQ — Damian Paletta (@damianpaletta) January 25, 2019

Delays at LaGuardia, Newark & Philadellphia Airports we’re due to Air Traffic Controllers Staffing Shortages amid Senseless Trump Shutdown. Our safety is in danger at this point. Trump Reopen the Government NOW!! — Ngozi 🇺🇸 (@nnwajei) January 25, 2019

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says delays at East Coast airports amid a partial federal government shutdown are another symptom of the “federal madness” caused by Republican President Donald Trump.

The Democrat says the delays are hurting the economy and impacting airport safety and security. His comments came at an unrelated event in Manhattan Friday morning.

Earlier in the day Cuomo wrote to Trump demanding an end to the shutdown, saying it could become a national security issue.

The letter was sent shortly before the FAA announced LaGuardia Airport in New York and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey were both experiencing delays in takeoffs due to staffing problems at two air traffic control facilities.

Here’s the departure board at #LGA. After a ground stop this morning because of an air traffic controller shortage, about 2/3 of outgoing flight are delayed. The arrival side looks worse with 3/4 delayed 20min to 2hrs. @wcbs880 pic.twitter.com/wg14s5P4O9 — Peter Haskell (@peterhaskell880) January 25, 2019

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com . Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry .

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