US airlines offer free meals to unpaid air traffic controllers

Several US airlines have begun providing free meals to air traffic controllers and other federal employees who have missed paychecks due to the ongoing government shutdown.

United Airlines announced Tuesday that it is distributing free meals at its major hubs, including Chicago O'Hare, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco and Washington Dulles airports.

In a statement to CBS News, the company said: "We appreciate the hardworking federal employees who are keeping the air travel system running."

Delta Air Lines and JetBlue also confirmed that they have launched similar support programs at their airports.

The move comes after thousands of air traffic controllers missed their first full paychecks since the beginning of the shutdown.

At a press conference at New York's LaGuardia Airport, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Nick Daniels highlighted the growing financial strain on controllers.

"This is day one, and day two gets harder, [and] day three is harder after that, as expenses continue to roll [in]," Duffy said, noting that many new controllers still in training are struggling to meet basic expenses.

Daniels added that many controllers have been forced to take side jobs to make ends meet, warning that this could negatively affect the safety of the air traffic system.

The shutdown, the second-longest in US history, began on Oct. 1 after negotiations on federal spending priorities broke down. Thousands of federal workers have since been furloughed, while government services have been curtailed or suspended.