The United States government has been shut down for nearly a month at this point, meaning that federal workers aren’t receiving their paychecks. Despite the shutdown, our air travel system has actually been operating pretty reliably, with minimal staffing issues. Along those lines, one airline is now being impacted by the shutdown pretty directly, and is also calling on the shutdown to end…
Delta One check-in at JFK & LAX closes due to shutdown
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal ran a story titled “The Shutdown Is Now Coming for Your Airport’s VIP Security Lane.” While airport staffing limitations haven’t been a problem widely, we are starting to see some implciations.
Specifically, Delta is known for its excellent Delta One check-in facilities in Los Angeles (LAX) and New York (JFK), whereby passengers can check-in in an exclusive area, and then use a private TSA checkpoint to get through security.
While premium check-in continues to be available, the special security lanes have been temporarily closed, due to the shutdown. A Delta spokesperson stated that “we’re working with our TSA partners in these locations to have customers screened through other checkpoints.”
Presumably what’s going on here is that we’re starting to see an increase in sick calls and people not coming into work, since they can’t afford to show up to work if they’re not getting a paycheck, and they need to find other ways to make ends meet.
So once staffing is reduced a bit, these premium security lines are the first to get the cut, since they’re not exactly essential. Fair enough.
Delta calls for end of government shutdown
As flagged by David Shepardson, Delta has just issued a statement calling on Congress to end the government shutdown by passing a clean continuing resolution:
“Delta Air Lines implores Congress to immediately pass a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government so that our air traffic controllers, TSA and CBP officers charged with the safety and efficiency of our national airspace can collect the paychecks they deserve. Missed paychecks only increase the stress on these essential workers, many of whom are already working mandatory overtime to keep our skies safe and secure. It’s thanks to these federal employees that Delta is able to carry more than 500,000 daily customers on 5,000 daily flights. A system under stress must be slowed down, reducing efficiency and causing delays for the millions of people who take to the skies every day.”
Obviously the shutdown has much bigger implications than Delta’s most premium passengers getting a shortcut at security. However, the timing of this statement is funny. A day after the WSJ article about Delta One check-in closing, and around a month into the shutdown, Delta is finally calling on it to end?
Of course there’s not actually much substance to this. I don’t think anyone wants a government shutdown, it’s just a function of the extent to which the parties are willing to negotiate.
Bottom line
The special Delta One security lanes at JFK and LAX have been closed due to the government shutdown. Presumably this is because TSA staffing is getting a bit thin, so the TSA can’t justify allocating employees to these special checkpoints.
A day after this was covered by the WSJ, Delta has issued a statement calling on the government shutdown to end. I don’t expect that to have much of an impact, but Delta certainly isn’t alone in wanting that…
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