Shutdown causes long airport waits
Air travellers endured waits of more than an hour yesterday to get through domestic checkpoints at the world’s busiest airport in Atlanta.
It was the first business day after security screeners missed pay for the first time due to partial government shutdown.
No-shows among screeners across the US soared on Monday and again yesterday, when the Transportation Security Administration reported a national absence rate of 7.6 per cent, compared with 3.2 per cent on the comparable day a year ago.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport reported the long lines on its website, showing the hourplus waits at all three checkpoints in the domestic terminal.
“It’s chaos out here,” passenger Vincent Smith said as he stood in a line that snaked through the Atlanta airport’s atrium and baggage claim areas. “This line, I’ve been here about 15 minutes and it has moved 2 feet.” TSA is working with the Atlanta airport and airlines “to maximise all available operational resources at the airport,” TSA spokesman Jim Gregory said.
The agency is working with airports and airlines to consolidate operations and get the most out of resources, Gregory added.
But Smith said he could relate to government workers who don’t show up so they can find other ways to
make ends meet. “If I was a government worker, yes, I would probably call in and try to do something else because creditors don’t care if you’re furloughed or not. They just want to get paid.”
A bipartisan group of rank-and-file senators is planning to hold discussions on how to end the weekslong
government shutdown, with talks between congressional leaders and the White House at a standstill.
Prospects for the group to achieve any results are uncertain. But the group’s creation is a sign senators of both parties are eager to end the shutdown, even if it means taking matters into their own hands amid an impasse between top Democrats and Donald Trump. With the shutdown entering its fourth week, the US President remains dug in on his demands for US$5.7 billion to build hundreds of new walls along the US-Mexico border. Democrats are refusing to give him anywhere near that amount.