With the government shutdown headed into a second week, WENY News reached out to Shackelford, McKinley & Norton aviation partner Greg Reigel to discuss the impact on air travel.  

“I think you’re seeing two pieces to this. One is on the ATC side, air traffic control. But then you’re also going to see on the security side TSA in terms of screening,” said Mr. Reigel. “They’re not getting paychecks, but they are still required to show up for work… The longer this goes, I think you’re going to start seeing more folks that are either calling in sick or taking vacation days and that’s going to have an impact on scheduling and coverage.” 

And it’s not just the big hubs feeling the turbulence. Delays at major airports trickle down through the entire system, affecting flights headed to smaller regional airports.  

“A flight that’s delayed coming out of Reagan, for example, that’s going to a regional airport, it’s going to impact whether it’s an on-time arrival and/or then subsequent departure. “When you have a problem in one area, it tends to propagate out through the system.”  

Read Aviation Experts Warn of Worsening Delays During Shutdown