Air Travel in a Government Shutdown

The ongoing government shutdown is starting to impact air travel and air traffic controllers. Fox News Radio's Tonya J. Powers joins us to discuss where you might notice the shutdown. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is West Michigan's Morning News Steve Kelly and Brett Pikita. Now,
I know this show isn't about me, but I'm reading
some of these stories about people traveling and the TSA
and the you know, Sandy and I have an out
of town wedding next week. So, Tanya Jay Powers with
Fox News Radio, the government shutdown and air travel. What
do you got this morning, Tanya?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, uh, you said you've got to fly soon? Is
that what I heard?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
And guess where we're headed, Washington, d C. For a
wedding next week.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, okay, well this is this is I don't know
that this is going to be comforting news. However, I
do have to I do have to give you the
facts straight though. So there are were there were already
air traffic controller shortages before the shutdown, right, We've heard
a lot about that, especially since January, you know, when

(00:50):
we started seeing more incidents, uh in you know, with
air travel things like that. This has exacerbated the problem.
You know, it is not a new problem, but it
does not help. That is according to the quote from
the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the
union that represents them, what we are seeing now is

(01:11):
the flight delays and cancelations that are starting to go
up as air traffic controllers are calling in sick. This
is leaving some of the airport towers and the control
facilities without enough staff to handle all the flights. So
the FAA has, you know, will pull back on those
occasionally and say, okay, well, we want fewer takeoffs and

(01:31):
landing because there's not enough people to you know, juggle
all the planes in the sky at the same time. Right,
you might want to make sure you're not getting ahead
of the amount of controllers that can handle all that.
So these the flight disruptions are resulting in delays and cancelations.
If you are in deep flying somewhere anytime soon, you

(01:51):
want to allow plenty of time. You also want to
be prepared in case there is a delay. If you've
got an especially tight turnaround layover somewhere that you've got
you an hour to get to your next gate, that
may be something you want to address ahead of time,
because there could be, you know, a delay getting you
to wherever you're going if you're making a connecting flight.

(02:12):
To just keep that in the back of your mind.
The controllers are essential workers and I think a lot
of us have the notion that essential workers are getting
paid like normals. They are not. That just means they're
exemp from being furlowed until the government's shut down in
they these thirteen thousand more than that. Actually controllers are
working without pay. They should be getting a partial check

(02:34):
on the fourteenth of October, but if this goes on,
they won't get one at all on the twenty eighth.
So think about the level of stress the job that
they have, the fact that they're not getting paid. I
can't even imagine what that's like.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, yeah, but there are laws that say they have
to get all of their back pay. I had a
buddy who's worked for the Treasury Department and he's retired.
He's a little vocal on social media because he's my
age and we get a little mouthy as we get old,
and he's like, there are provisions that say everybody's got
to get paid. And in his thirty four years of
government service, he never didn't even during a partial government shutdown.

(03:08):
And he didn't add and oh, yes, Steve's flying next week.
So again we're at a time. Tanya J. Powers with
Fox News Radio in New York I'll text you if
I have a little downtime in an airport in the
next couple of days.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Please do I want to know how that's going