ATLANTA (AP) — Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed across the United States on Monday as a powerful storm ripped through the eastern half of the country and a partial government shutdown stretched into a second month at airport security screens.
The disruption comes at an already challenging time for air travel, in part because the shutdown that began Feb. 14 has strained staffing at some security checkpoints. At the same time, airports are crowded with spring break travelers and fans heading for March Madness games, the annual NCAA men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments.
The number of flight delays and cancellations soared Monday at some of the nation’s largest airports, including New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The National Weather Service warned Monday that the storm system that brought heavy snow to the Midwest has moved toward the East Coast with high winds and the potential for tornadoes.
More than 4,400 flights to, from or within the U.S. were canceled Monday, and about 10,400 other U.S. flights were delayed, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. About 290 flights scheduled to take place in the US on Tuesday have been cancelled.
Kelly Price, who was trying to get home to Colorado after a family vacation in Orlando, Florida, said her Sunday night flight was not canceled until Monday morning.
“By that time the only place for us to sleep was the airport floor. So we were all tired and frustrated,” he said, adding that he and his family could have booked another flight as soon as possible, but there were no flights leaving until Tuesday afternoon.
Impact on major airport hubs
Nationwide cancellations include nearly 570 in and out of Chicago O’Hare International, more than 430 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International and more than 270 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to FlightAware.
Earlier on Monday, citing severe weather, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground delays at JFK and Newark Liberty International Airports, as well as ground stops at Hartsfield-Jackson and Charlotte Douglas International Airports.
Danielle Cash found herself stuck in St. Louis on Sunday while trying to get home to Tampa, Florida, after a girls’ weekend trip to Las Vegas. Now she’s spending several hundred dollars more than planned on a hotel room in a snowy town that she didn’t dress for.
“It was 80 degrees in Tampa when I left there and then went to Vegas,” she said. “And it was 90 degrees in the desert.”
Cash said he now has a flight booked that will take him to Tennessee and eventually return to Tampa by Tuesday afternoon.
TSA staffing shortage puts pressure on some checkpoints
The storms are also looming as airport security screeners missed their first full pay check over the weekend. The current partial government shutdown affects only the Department of Homeland Security, which also includes the Transportation Security Administration.
Democrats in Congress have said Homeland Security will not be funded unless new restrictions are imposed on federal immigration operations following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretty and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year.
The shutdown is the third in less than a year to leave TSA employees temporarily without pay. Employees will have to wait for the outstanding salaries as soon as the government reopens.
Some airports have reported long security lines due to staffing shortages as more TSA employees take second jobs, cannot afford gas to get to work, or leave the profession altogether. Homeland Security has said more than 300 TSA agents have walked off the job since the shutdown began.
Security wait times can be bad
TSA union leaders in Atlanta held a news conference outside Hartsfield-Jackson on Monday, warning that air travelers could face longer wait times if the shutdown continues. Still, union leaders said, many officers are still coming to work despite growing financial strains.
Aaron Barker, a local leader of the American Federation of Government Employees, said many TSA workers are “struggling with eviction notices, vehicle repossessions, empty refrigerators and overstretched bank accounts.” Behind him, supporters held signs that read, “We want pay checks, not rain checks.”
Louis Armstrong International Airport said at And the airport in Austin, Texas, shared a video taken at 5:30 a.m. local time on Twitter, showing a security line stretching onto the sidewalk outside.
Back in Atlanta, Mel Stewart and his wife arrived for their flight from Hartsfield-Jackson four hours earlier than usual to make up for the long TSA lines.
“I think it’s being politicized too much — too much,” Stewart said Monday of the shutdown. “And these people are working. They work hard, and the TSA people don’t get paid, it’s stupid.”
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Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press reporter Margery A. in Omaha, Nebraska. Beck contributed to this report.
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