The vice president predicted Americans will experience airport security lines over four hours long if the shutdown continues into the holidays.
Vice President JD Vance warned on Thursday that holiday travel will be a “disaster” if the government shutdown does not end.
“It could be a disaster, it really could be,” Vance said during a press conference at the White House on Oct. 30. “At that point, you’re talking about, [how] people have missed three paychecks, they’ve missed four paychecks. How many of them are not going to show up for work?”
After hosting a closed-door roundtable with aviation leaders, Vance voiced his concerns about how the shutdown will impact the air travel industry.
The vice president predicted the wait-time on security lines would be four hours long and hinted that essential employees, who have been working without pay since the shutdown began Oct. 1, might leave their positions to get jobs that would allow them to pay their bills. Those staffers include air traffic controllers, transportation security officers, technicians, and pilots.
“They are worried that the delays are going to reach a point where it makes it very, very hard for the American people to fly,” Vance said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who attended the roundtable, echoed those concerns during the press conference and warned of “huge problems” with the aviation industry if the government does not reopen.
“Our traffic will be snarled. It will be a disaster in aviation.”
Duffy suggested that October is generally a slower month for air travel, and the delays Americans have been experiencing are “minimal” compared to what could happen in November and December.
“As we go into November, travel picks up as people start to look at going to see their families [for Thanksgiving],” he said.
“Kids come home from college and if you don’t have air traffic controllers who are being paid, they may want to stay on the job but they cannot. They’re going to have to go take a second job and you’re going to have mass issues throughout the airspace. People will not be able to go from one place to the other.”
Over 13,000 air traffic controllers and thousands of transportation security officers have been working without pay since the shutdown started. They missed what would have been their first full paycheck this week.
The transportation secretary said none of the workers will be financially okay after two missed paychecks.
By Jacki Thrapp
