United States: The head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) warned that if the U.S. government shuts down, airport wait times could get longer. TSA has about 62,000 workers, and 59,000 of them are considered essential. These workers would continue to work without pay if the government shuts down on Saturday, unless a funding deal is reached.
As reported by the Reuters, the government workers who are on strike include the air traffic controllers, the TSA officers among others, these are employees who have to work but are not paid.
Thus, while our personnel is ready to meet the high number of travelers and provide safe travelling, let me remind that an involving shutdown can lead to longer wait at the airports,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske shared on his Twitter.
TSA: Holiday Travelers Can Expect Longer Airport Lines If Government Shuts Down https://t.co/jpNkJN5z1N
— Zicutake USA Comment (@Zicutake) December 20, 2024
The agency anticipates and mass screenings of forty million people over the holiday period after increasing records during the Thanksgiving holiday.
The exodus was avoided, the Federal Aviation Administration said, after a deal was struck—but without it, FAA said that it would have had to furlough over 17,400 employees and stop training air traffic controllers.
During shutdown in 2019 for 35 days, the number of the time off by the controllers and the TSA officers increased and with greatest number of the workers were not being paid, which in turn delayed the checkpoint for some airports.
As a reaction to slow air traffic, the FAA foresaw the need to push lawmakers to resolve the impasse.