WASHINGTON — 

U.S. airport security workers and air traffic controllers working without pay warned that security and safety could be compromised if a government shutdown continues beyond Friday, when some workers will miss their first paychecks.

On the 19th day of a partial government shutdown caused by a dispute over funding President Donald Trump wants for a border wall, the president stormed out of talks with Democratic congressional leaders, complaining the meeting was “a total waste of time.”

As the effects of the shutdown began to ripple out, the Trump administration insisted that air travel staffing was adequate and travelers had not faced unusual delays.

TSA workers quitting

But union officials said some Transport Security Administration (TSA) officers, who carry out security screening in airports, had quit because of the shutdown and others were considering quitting.

“The loss of (TSA) officers, while we’re already shorthanded, will create a massive security risk for American travelers since we don’t have enough trainees in the pipeline or the ability to process new hires,” American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council President Hydrick Thomas said.

“If this keeps up there are problems that will arise — least of which would be increased wait times for travelers.”

Aviation unions, airport and airline officials and lawmakers will hold a rally Thursday outside Congress urging an end to the shutdown.

TSA says delays within reason

TSA spokesman Michael Bilello said the organization was hiring officers and working on contingency plans in case the shutdown lasted beyond Friday, when officers would miss their first paycheck since the shutdown began Dec. 22.

“There has been no degradation in security effectiveness and average wait times are well within TSA standards,” he said.

He added that there had been no spike in employees quitting and that Tuesday 5 percent of officers took unscheduled leave, up just slightly from 3.9 percent the same day last year.

It screened 1.73 million passengers and 99.9 percent of passengers waited less than 30 minutes, the TSA said.

But U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, questioned how long adequate staffing at airports could continue.

“TSA officers are among the lowest paid federal employees, with many living paycheck-to-paycheck,” Thompson wrote. “It is only reasonable to expect officer call outs and resignations to increase the longer the shutdown lasts, since no employee can be expected to work indefinitely without pay.”

​Airports urge end to shutdown

Airports Council International-North America, which represents U.S. airports, urged Trump and congressional leaders in a letter to quickly reopen the government.

“TSA staffing shortages brought on by this shutdown are likely to further increase checkpoint wait times and may even lead to the complete closure of some checkpoints,” the group said.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) noted that the number of controllers was already at a 30-year low, with 18 percent of controllers eligible to retire.

If a significant number of controllers missed work, the Federal Aviation Administration could be forced to extend the amount of time between takeoffs and landings, which could delay travel, it said.

NATCA President Paul Rinaldi said controllers often must work overtime and six-day weeks at short-staffed locations.

“If the staffing shortage gets worse, we will see reduced capacity in the National Airspace System, meaning more flight delays,” Rinaldi said.

CLOSE

May sets Brexit deal vote for week of January 14
AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Disruptions to air travel are possible if Britain leaves the European Union in March without a deal, the head of the leading association for airlines around the world warned Thursday.

Alexandre de Juniac, director general and CEO of International Air Transport Association, said the risk to traffic flow is partly under control after the announcement of contingency plans.

However, he voiced concerns about the possibility of some disruption that could involve flight adjustments and cancellations in the period after a so-called “no-deal” Brexit because current guidelines relating to air travel between Britain and the EU reflect 2018 traffic levels. Passenger traffic is projected to grow 5.5 percent in Europe this year.

“I am not concerned that there will be a major disruption, but I am concerned that there will be disruptions in the coming weeks, in the coming months because it has not been calibrated properly,” de Juniac told reporters in Dubai.

With less than three months to Brexit day on March 29, Britain has yet to agree on terms for its withdrawal from the EU, raising fears that the country could leave the bloc without a deal to ease the transition to a new future relationship – a scenario that could see serious dislocations to trade.

Even if a deal is secured, Brexit will involve the country leaving around 750 international treaties, among them arrangements governing the EU’s aviation market. The British government has said that following Brexit it wants arrangements with other countries to allow air travel to continue unimpeded.

U.K. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling told the House of Commons on Thursday that there would be no disruption to flights in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The Civil Aviation Authority was working on creating a “properly functional British alternative,” he said.

IATA, which represents some 290 airlines, relies on open borders, de Juniac said.

“When you close these borders, it’s not good news for us,” he said.

A study commissioned by IATA on the effects of Brexit stressed that Britain has the largest aviation industry in Europe with around 80 percent of all North Atlantic traffic passing through British or Irish airspace.

The federal government said late Tuesday that it has identified funding to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Food Program, which provides food assistance to about 1.2 million low-income people each month in Michigan, operating through February.

That’s good news, but operating dollars for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program — which provides monthly boxes of food for tens of thousands of senior citizens in the region — run out after this week. The government will continue to provide food for the senior meal program through February, but that won’t cover administrative costs.

Thanks to a large warehouse on its Detroit campus, Focus:HOPE has about two months of food stored for the 44,000 seniors it provides with a box of food each month.

That store can sustain the senior food program into mid-March, Focus: HOPE President and CEO Portia Roberson said, and the nonprofit, which operates on a $32 million annual budget, has some general fund dollars to cover the $230,000 it takes to operate the program each month.

“Obviously, that could not go on for a year. … the hope is we won’t have to go for an extended period of time,” Roberson said.

A more immediate concern: Federal employees who aren’t being paid during the shutdown are likely to need food assistance. Gleaner’s Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan is coordinating with United Way for Southeastern Michigan and 10 area pantries and food distribution sites to ensure those who need food while they wait for their next paycheck can get it.

There are an estimated 5,000-6,000 federal employees in the state, with the bulk of them here in Southeastern Michigan, according to reported estimates.

Those employees work for federal departments including the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Gleaners President and CEO Gerry Brisson.

This is the first week federal workers will miss a paycheck, but most people live paycheck to paycheck, “so we can’t have no response now,” Brisson said.

Gleaners has begun packing 1,000 food boxes with staples like spaghetti and spaghetti sauce to get federal employees over the hump, he said.

The boxes will be available starting Monday at 10 pantries/food distribution sites in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Monroe counties.

Most people can make it for a week without a paycheck, he said, so “we think 1,000 boxes will be more than enough to get through the first wave,” with distribution expanded as needed.

The first wave of boxes will cost Gleaners $23,000.

“We have operating cash for emergencies, about 60 days of operating cash in the bank just for this kind of thing,” Brisson said.

“But there’s no question if the emergency lasts a long time, we’re going to have to go out and ask people to help us.”

United Way has agreed to serve as a referral point, directing federal employees who call its 211 health and human services hotline to the nearest pantry for a food box.

United Way’s 211 staff is prepared to offer that support, said Eric Davis, vice president of basic needs, health and outreach.

“The next couple of weeks I think we should be OK. But if it goes much larger than that, we’re going to have some serious problems … once the benefits start to diminish,” Davis said.

Child nutrition programs such as Women, Infants and Children, and other food assistance programs will also see funding into February and March.

“SNAP is the biggest concern. It is the biggest federal food program. All of the other food programs combined don’t do as much as SNAP,” Brisson said. In Michigan, the program has more recipients than any other entitlement program offered, outside of Medicaid.

Beyond food assistance programs, federal housing and rental subsidies are being jeopardized by the shutdown, “putting people at risk of losing their place to live at the coldest time of the year,” Gilda Jacobs, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy, said in an emailed statement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. airport security workers and air traffic controllers working without pay have been warning that security and safety could be compromised if the government shutdown continues, but the Trump administration said on Wednesday that staffing is adequate and travelers have not faced unusual delays.

Nine federal agencies closed in the middle of the holiday season: departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State, Transportation and the Treasury.

London: A Daily Chronicle representative interviewed Mr Holt Thomas, director of the Aircraft Manufacturing Company, who says the air journey to Australia can now be done at a hundred miles an hour, including stoppages, and the speed for a world journey will soon be 130 miles an hour.

A single airman will not fly all the way to New South Wales. One man will go to Paris and find another airman waiting there. In five minutes the mail receptacles will be transferred to the second machine, which will resume the journey.

A 300-mile trip is sufficient for any one pilot. It is important to develop an air-cooled engine to replace the present water-cooled engine, which becomes faulty in the tropics and the Antarctic regions, through the water either boiling or freezing.

A trans-Atlantic flight, Mr Holt Thomas says, should be accomplished in 1919, but no seaplane could stand the Atlantic roller.

Battlefield tourism

No sooner have we settled down, says an Australian writer (though lots of us find it still impossible to do so), to the idea of peace, than the pleasure-as-usuals begin to plan about running overseas, and here and there, and with stupefying callousness, talk gaily of ”doing the battlefield”, as though this terrible war was just a rehearsal for a military picture film, and they are off to see the finished performance!

But it will be many a day before the troops of the Allies are all off French soil, and many a day after that before the French authorities will allow their country to be overrun by gazing tourists. A warning has been issued to globe trotters that they may book for the overseas trip, but there is no promise that they can get back within a specified time.

Anyone can take the voyage over (who after the full and plenty of our warfare can put up with the rationing that must still go on in England for some time), but it might be two or even three years before they can get back.

Fruit shortage

The changeable and frequently inclement weather which has been experienced for several weeks past has necessarily had the effect of making the season later for all classes of produce. From the point of view of the householder, this has been particularly noticeable in the case of fruit.

The crop of most classes of fruit this year will unfortunately be smaller than usual, a frost on Christmas morning having, we are informed, extended the damage attributable to previous late frosts.

In the case of strawberries, apparently the one fruit of which the supply in the shops has been at least equal to, if not in excess of, the average, the season is estimated to be fully four weeks behind that of a normal year.

– ODT, 9.1.1919

COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ

The U.S. air travel industry has begun to feel the sting of a lengthening government shutdown amid delayed training for new pilots and air traffic controllers coupled with an uptick in sick leave by transportation security employees required to work without pay.

President Trump is slated to give a national address on Tuesday on the now 18-day shutdown of departments including the Transportation Security Administration, a lapse prompted by White House demands that Congress provide more funding for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico than lawmakers have been willing to give.

[Read more: Pelosi, Schumer to deliver rebuttal to Trump’s Oval Office address]

The White House is currently deciding whether to declare a national emergency to sidestep Congress and free up money for the wall. Trump wants more than $5 billion in funding to fulfill his signature campaign promise — one he told voters repeatedly that Mexico would pay for. Democrats in both the House and Senate, meanwhile, have vowed to bring legislative activity to a halt until a measure is passed to fund the agencies not covered by a separate government spending legislation last year.

As the shutdown hinders government services and raises questions about potential delays in U.S. tax refunds, U.S. airlines are contending with delays in the certification of new aircraft as well as employee training, according to a spokeswoman for Airlines for America, the industry’s top lobbying group.

“We urge elected leaders to reach an agreement and reopen the federal government quickly,” she said in an emailed statement.

The shutdown has hurt some carriers more than others. Southwest Airlines is “not experiencing any significant impacts to our operation at this time,” a company representative told the Washington Examiner.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Delta Air Lines declined to comment.

Airports are also under pressure. TSA agents — who are deemed essential and therefore must show up for work even though they will not be paid until funding resumes — are calling in sick in higher numbers, spurring concerns over the ability of the agency to continue to oversee travel safety in the U.S.

On Monday, TSA had an unscheduled absence rate of 4.6 percent, up from 3.8 percent a year ago, an agency representative told the Washington Examiner. The uptick is “having minimal impact on operations,” the spokesman said in an emailed statement, adding that 99.9 percent of passengers on Monday waited in security lines for less than 30 minutes.

TSA agents have not yet missed a paycheck, but they will if the shutdown continues past Friday.

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Germany is also in close contact with Britain with a view to avoiding disruption to air transport links in the case of a hard Brexit.

A number of Conservative MPs have spoke out in favour of leaving the EU without a deal as they maintain opposition to Mrs May’s deal.

Ross Thomson, MP for Aberdeen South, said: “Leaving the EU on WTO terms means we have our own trade policy, save billions of our own money, take back control of our own law making, regain control over our own borders and take back control of our own fishing waters.

“That’s Brexit. That’s closer to what people voted for.”

The EU Commission has already announced a series of plans to minimise disruption and has also urged member states to step up their own preparations.

In December, Brussels a number of temporary measures, in areas such as finance and transport.

“These measures will not – and cannot – mitigate the overall impact of a ‘no-deal’ scenario,” the Commission said in a statement.

Hostilities between aviation workers and their employers have resumed across Europe, with thousands of passengers caught up in the first major stoppage of the year.

Security workers at Berlin’s Tegel Airport took industrial action between 5am and 8.45am, the busiest time of the week for outbound departures. The strike triggered cancellations that will disrupt travel through the morning.

Lufthansa and its subsidiaries Eurowings are hardest hit, with multiple flights to Frankfurt, Cologne and Munich grounded.

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Services to Paris, Copenhagen, Basel, Zurich and Vienna are among the international flights cancelled.

The airport told passengers: “From 5am to 8.45am there will be severe disruption in air traffic. Enquire about the current status of your flight with your airline before travelling to the airport.”

Ryanair cabin crew employed in Spain are planning strikes on 8, 10 and 13 January after failing to reach an agreement with Europe’s biggest budget airline over employment conditions.

As is customary in Spain, the government has stipulated a minimum level of operations, which means that all domestic flights and 35 per cent of international services must run.

The airline said it planned to operate a full schedule of flights to, from and within Spain on Tuesday 8 January – but urged passengers to arrive at the departure airport at least two hours ahead.

The latest strike to be called is in Italy on Friday 11 January. Eurocontrol said the four-hour strike, timed for the busiest afternoon of the week – from 1-5pm – will affect domestic, European flights and long-haul departures, but not overflights or incoming intercontinental flights.

Passengers whose flights are disrupted are entitled to a duty of care – meals and accommodation – until they reach their destination, but the right to cash compensation is disputed.