ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - As the government shutdown enters its second week with lawmakers still deadlocked in their fight on healthcare funding, airports are beginning to feel the impact.
Thousands of federal employees are either furloughed or working without pay and that includes some airport employees, like TSA agents and air traffic controllers.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it has been delaying flights because of air traffic controller shortages.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a press conference that many controllers are already calling out sick because they are no longer getting paid.
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“What the consistent message was from these controllers was, they’re not just now thinking about the airspace and the jobs they have to do in these towers or trade cons or centers across the country, they’re thinking about, am I going to get a paycheck,” said Duffy.
Fearing the impact of the shutdown, Pamela Huff left her house in Covington Tuesday morning with plenty of time to spare to catch her flight to Houston.
“I thought it was going to be really hectic because I’ve been hearing so much on social media, so much on the news, so I didn’t want to take that chance,” she said.
However, seeing almost no security line had her wishing she had stayed in bed just a little longer.
“I am very pleasantly surprised. I could have stayed home and had coffee and breakfast,” said Huff.
At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, officials said operations are running as usual.
There were 345 reported delays into or out of Hartsfield-Jackson Monday, with 5,800 reported across the country.
Twelve FAA facilities saw staffing shortages Monday night. Out in Burbank, California, their air traffic control tower outright closed in the afternoon, leaving pilots to coordinate with each other.
Duffy said if the number of sick calls continues to increase, they’ll have to reduce the flow of air traffic.
“Is our airspace unsafe? No. Right, if we think there’s issues in the airspace, we will shut it down, we will close it down. We will delay. But again, it’s creating a ripple effect for our controllers,” he said.
In Atlanta, to try and mitigate the impact, Democratic Congresswoman Nikema Williams and Mayor Andre Dickens have created a relief package for TSA agents to include meal vouchers and free parking at the airport.
The 35-day shutdown back in 2019 ended when delays and sick calls snarled air traffic.