What a government shutdown could mean for air travel

A Government shutdown The peak holiday travel season is about to start.

Lawmakers found themselves at an impasse, voting Thursday against a short-term bill backed by President-elect Donald Trump to proceed funding the U.S. government. If no agreement is reached, the shutdown could begin as early as 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday.

Hundreds of hundreds of presidency staff could be furloughed if Congress doesn't pass a spending bill.

A government shutdown could cost the U.S. travel industry $1 billion per week, estimates the U.S. Travel Association, which represents major hotel groups and others.

“It's hard to imagine how anyone in Congress can win by forcing TSA workers, air traffic controllers and other essential employees to work without pay during one of the busiest travel times of the year,” Geoff Freeman, the group's president, said in an interview statement on Friday.

Commercial aircraft flights are still planned, although there may be a possibility of a shutdown.

Airlines are predicting the busiest year-end holiday season ever. The Transportation Security Administration expects its officials to screen greater than 40 million people through the holiday period through Jan. 2. United Airlines The company alone said it transported 9.9 million people between December 19 and January 6, a rise of 12% year-on-year.

The government considers the greater than 14,000 air traffic controllers and nearly 60,000 TSA agents essential, meaning they’d proceed to work despite the fact that they’d not be paid through the shutdown.

TSA officers “would continue to work without pay in the event of a closure,” the agency’s administrator, David Pekoske, said Thursday Social media platform X.

“While our staff has prepared to handle high passenger volumes and ensure the safety of our transportation systems, an extended closure could result in longer wait times at airports,” the TSA said in an announcement Friday.

The last government shutdown lasted greater than a month, from late 2018 to early 2019.

Operations by some air traffic controllers within the heavily congested airspace on the US East Coast brought air traffic to a standstill during this closure. Then-President Trump and lawmakers soon agreed to finish the shutdown, the longest funding gap in U.S. history.

Traffic jams have angered airlines. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration is again and not using a everlasting administrator after FAA chief Mike Whitaker, appointed by President Joe Biden last 12 months, said he would resign on Jan. 20 when Trump takes office.

Modernizing air traffic control and hiring more air traffic controllers needs to be the FAA administrator's next priority, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC earlier this week.