Topline
Air traffic controllers and airport security screeners are working without pay during the government shutdown, which has historically tanked morale and led to longer wait times and more flight disruptions for consumers—especially when a funding lapse drags out more than a week or two.
On Wednesday, the website of the Department of Transportation, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), posted an emergency notification banner noting portions of the agencies are “currently in shutdown/furlough status due to a lapse in appropriations.”
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) noted on social media that “an extended shutdown could mean longer wait times at airports.”
Air traffic controllers and TSA screeners are exempted from furloughs during a government shutdown, but they work without a paycheck until funding is restored.
“Over time, I expect sick leave absences to go up tremendously,” Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, told Forbes, adding that during government shutdowns in the 1990s, many employees misused sick leave to work a temporary job or look for another full-time job “and then there's attrition and a drain on overtime.”
Roughly 95% of the TSA’s 64,000 employees will work without pay during the shutdown, according to a Department of Homeland Security document on the agency’s shutdown protocols. During past shutdowns, the strain of working without a timely paycheck led to reports of low morale and, eventually, increased absenteeism. During the 2018 government shutdown, which lasted 35 days, for example, hundreds of TSA screeners called in sick, leading to flight delays and longer screening lines.
The FAA expects to furlough 11,000 employees, about 25% of its workforce, according to a Department of Transportation shutdown plan. More than 13,000 air traffic controllers are considered essential workers, but working without pay has traditionally lowered morale and led to increased stress and absenteeism. “At first, it'll be business as usual, but things slow down after people start missing paychecks,” Schiavo told Forbes. Meanwhile, other FAA staff—including safety inspectors, administrators, and support staff—can be furloughed, which strains the system. “You have the reality of human beings, many of [whom] are living paycheck to paycheck,” Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, a union representing 16,000 pilots, told NPR. “It doesn't take long before the system slows down.” Through its lobby group, U.S. airlines warned that this partial federal government shutdown “is coming at a critical moment” as the FAA tries to modernize its antiquated air traffic control system and “supercharge” the hiring of air traffic controllers, adding that the funding lapse could strain the country’s aviation system and slow flights. Should the shutdown stretch for weeks, disgruntled air traffic controllers could be a tipping point. During the 2018-2019 shutdown, a shortage of air traffic controllers forced the FAA to drastically limit traffic into major airports from New York to Philadelphia, Atlanta and Orlando, which reportedly led President Trump to end the shutdown. On Wednesday, the first day of the shutdown, an air traffic controller told Forbes: “It’s getting messy.”
“When federal employees who manage air traffic, inspect aircraft and secure our nation’s aviation system are furloughed or working without pay, the entire industry and millions of Americans feel the strain,” Airlines for America, the airline lobby group, said in a statement.
Scheduled passport and visa services in the U.S. and at embassies and consulates abroad will continue during the appropriations lapse “as the situation permits,” according to the U.S. State Department shutdown plan. To be on the safe side, Americans planning to travel internationally should act quickly if they need passport renewals. During some past shutdowns, staff furloughs led to backlogged applications and longer processing times.