TSA and Air Traffic Control Impact by Government Shutdown

No one can say for sure how long this is going to continue.  The government shutdown is now officially in day 18.  Areas mostly impacted so far are National Parks, but over the weekend stories broke out of TSA agents calling in “sick,” creating a serious issue for airport security.  I just saw online this morning that my local airport is seeking temporary part time TSA staff.  Those of us who all travel weekly may be in for some serious delays starting this week.

This shutdown isn’t just TSA agents, its also traffic control staff.  If appropriations aren’t agreed upon by tomorrow, about 10,000 air traffic control resources will not get paid.  Additionally if you’ve applied for Global Entry, their offices are closed.  So no processing of applications or interviews being conducted at this time.

The good news is that about 10,000 air traffic controllers who work for the Federal Aviation Administration and about 51,000 Transportation Security Administration officers have been told to keep reporting to work.  But I would still be proactive.  I fly out tomorrow.  I’ll be arriving to the airport much earlier.  I can’t find any information on impact to Pre-Check or Clear lanes.  I have to assume priorities have to go to the larger group of travelers, so I won’t be surprised if Pre-Check is closed.

Anyone seeing any impact yet?  Share your experience in comments below.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Enter your comment here...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Email (required) (Address never made public)

Name (required)

Website

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Notify me of new comments via email.

Notify me of new posts via email.

Δ

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.