US Vice President JD Vance warns of holiday travel meltdown as government shutdown causes air traffic controller absences and flight delays.
WASHINGTON: Vice President JD Vance on Thursday warned of a potential holiday meltdown if a government shutdown stretches into the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel season and urged Democrats to provide the votes to reopen the government.
Vance said after a White House meeting with the CEOs of American Airlines and United Airlines, unions and other aviation industry officials that a shutdown into late November could lead to more employee absences and much longer security lines and flight delays.
“It could be a disaster. It really could be, because at that point you’re talking about people have missed three paychecks,” Vance said.
“How many of them are not going to show up for work?”
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Delta Air Lines, United, Southwest Airlines and American all called on Congress to quickly pass a stop-gap funding bill known as a continuing resolution or “CR” to let the government reopen and discussions continue over health care policy disputes.
A 30-day government shutdown has led to a surge in flight delays due to air traffic controller absences and impacted thousands of flights, the Transportation Department said.
“It’s putting stress on the economy,” United CEO Scott Kirby told reporters, adding it was impacting bookings. “It is time to pass a clean CR.”
Delta said “a system under stress must be slowed down, reducing efficiency and causing delays for the millions of people who take to the skies every day.”
The shutdown has forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers to work without pay, the sources added.
Airlines have repeatedly urged an end to the shutdown, citing aviation safety risks.
The meeting comes as the shutdown exacerbates pre-existing staffing shortages.
This has led to a spike in unscheduled absences, threatening to cause widespread disruptions similar to those that helped end a 35-day government shutdown in 2019.
Duffy said 44% of delays on Sunday and 24% on Monday were caused by air traffic controller absences, compared to 5% on average before the shutdown.
Hundreds of air traffic controllers have taken second jobs to pay bills after missing their first full paycheck on Tuesday, and airlines and others are donating food to TSA agents and other federal workers at airports.
The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels and many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown. – Reuters
