A gesture by a group of Canadian air traffic controllers to buy pizzas for their counterparts over the border who are caught up in the partial US government shutdown, is gaining momentum.
The initiative started on Thursday when employees at Edmonton’s control centre started a collection to buy food for controllers in Anchorage, Alaska.
Other facilities across Canada joined in and the idea has snowballed. Since yesterday afternoon, an estimated 300 pizzas have been received by US controllers, who have expressed their thanks on social media.
Canadian Air Traffic Control Association head Peter Duffey said: "The next thing we knew, our members were buying pizzas left, right and centre for the colleagues in the US.
"As it stands right now, I believe we’re up to 36 facilities that have received pizza from Canada, and that number is growing by the hour."
Some 10,000 air traffic controllers in the United States have been working without pay since late December because of the ongoing government shutdown.
The government shutdown has affected many other airport employees and the number of people calling in sick has increased hugely over the past two weeks.
On Friday, TravelMole US reported that a lack of security staff turning up for work forced the closure of a terminal at Miami Airport.
