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As the ongoing government shutdown continues to hamper commercial aviation operations at airports all over the United States, wait times at security checkpoints are only getting longer. Staff shortages at major hubs have been exacerbated by increased absence rates due to TSA officers, who are federal employees, being made to work without pay, resulting in congestion at checkpoints and many passengers therefore missing their flights.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) in the US federal state of Georgia is a prime example of this phenomenon. Here, flyers have been advised to get to the airport four hours ahead of their departure time, but reports from on the ground at the Delta Air Lines hub suggest that closer to six would be a more realistic projection. Extra staff have been deployed in order to make passengers’ long waits as comfortable as possible.
Hours Of Waiting
Airport staffing levels and security queue lengths in the US reached a tipping point over the weekend, with CBS News reporting that Saturday’s figure of 3,200 TSA officers taking absence was the highest total since the ongoing partial government shutdown began. In Atlanta, one of the busiest airports in the US and a key 
Delta Air Lines hub, extra staff have been deployed as the facility struggles to come to terms with the huge crowds.
These employees have been tasked with crowd management, with queue-bound flyers provided with directions and water as staff try to make the best of a bad situation. According to CBS, guests were advised to arrive four hours early over the weekend, but, for some passengers, this was still an insufficient buffer. Indeed, the publication quotes a passenger by the name of Julie Curtis as having “been going in circles.” She went on to say that:
“They said we were in the wrong line this whole time. We thought four hours would do it, and we still missed our flight. (…) You need to be here six hours early.”
ICE Agents Will Be Deployed To Atlanta
As US authorities scramble to get a handle on this challenging situation, which shows no signs of improving unless the shutdown comes to an end and TSA officers are able to get the pay to which they are entitled, various suggestions have been floated. Among the ideas raised by US President Donald Trump himself has been to deploy Immigration, Customs & Enforcement (ICE) agents at airports across the US to fill the gaps left by security staff.
According to Yahoo News, ICE agents, along with other federal personnel including those from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division, are expected to begin supporting TSA operations in Atlanta today. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens confirmed that “all federal personnel will report directly to TSA,” and added that they will be deployed within the airport’s domestic terminals, rather than being involved in matters concerning immigration.
With US politicians still unable to bring the shutdown to an end by agreeing on a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security(DHS), which serves as the parent agency of ICE, tech billionaire Elon Musk has even offered to cover TSA officers’ paychecks. Either way, a resolution is urgently needed.
Major US Airlines CEOs Urge Congress To End DHS Shutdown
As the government shutdown drags on, TSA officers are left without pay, leading to a surge in absences and long lines at airports across the US.
Atlanta Was One Of The World’s Most Disrupted Airports This Weekend
While the ongoing congestion situation in Atlanta has not led to a great deal of flight cancellations, it has been one of the world’s worst-hit hubs in recent days as far as delays are concerned. For instance, Flight Aware shows that 250 of its departures were delayed yesterday, amounting to 21% of its daily total.
Conversely, only 21 (1%) of yesterday’s flights from Atlanta were shelved, with just 26 arrivals (2%) meeting this fate. Meanwhile, 188 (15%) of Atlanta’s inbound flights were delayed on Sunday. Saturday saw a similar picture unfold, with departure disruption amounting to 25 cancellations (2%) and 238 delays (22%). As far as arrivals were concerned, 26 (2%) were shelved outright, with 178 inbound flights (16%) arriving behind schedule.
