Storms cancel more US flights during partial shutdown affecting TSA

Powerful storms swept across the eastern half of the United States on Monday, and thousands of flights were canceled or delayed as a partial government shutdown affecting airport security screeners entered its second month, the Associated Press reported.

The disruptions arrived during an already challenging stretch for air travel, with spring break crowds and fans heading to March Madness games across the country. The shutdown, which began Feb. 14, strained staffing at some security checkpoints, adding to the weather-driven instability.

At some of the nation’s largest airports—including in New York, Chicago and Atlanta—flight delays and cancellations piled up Monday. The storm system that dumped heavy snow across the Midwest raced toward the East Coast with the potential for high winds and tornadoes, the National Weather Service warned.

FlightAware said more than 4,400 flights scheduled to fly into, out of or within the U.S. on Monday were called off, and roughly 10,400 other U.S. flights were delayed. Nearly 290 flights in the U.S. scheduled for Tuesday had been canceled, FlightAware reported.

Travelers described the combined impact of weather and the shutdown on their plans. Kelly Price, trying to get home to Colorado after a family vacation in Orlando, Florida, said her Sunday night flight wasn’t canceled until early Monday. She said the soonest she and her family could book another flight did not leave until Tuesday afternoon.

At a news conference outside the Atlanta airport, Aaron Barker, president of AMG local 550, argued that TSA workers “deserve to be paid like other government workers who are still getting paychecks during the partial shutdown.” Barker said, “By that time the only place for us to sleep was the airport floor. So we’re all tired and frustrated,” describing the hardship caused by the disruption and the lack of pay.

The nationwide cancellations included about 570 in and out of Chicago O’Hare International, more than 430 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International and over 270 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to FlightAware. Earlier Monday, citing severe weather, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops at Hartsfield-Jackson and Charlotte Douglas International Airport, along with ground delays at JFK and Newark Liberty International Airport.

In other travel disruptions, Danielle Cash found herself stranded in St. Louis on Sunday while trying to get home to Tampa, Florida, after a weekend girls’ trip to Las Vegas. Cash said, “It was 80 degrees in Tampa when I left and then going to Vegas,” adding, “And it was 90 degrees in the desert.” She said she was booked on a flight that would take her to Tennessee before finally returning to Tampa by Tuesday afternoon.

The storms unfolded as airport security screeners missed their first full paycheck over the weekend, according to the report. The partial government shutdown affects only the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration. Democrats in Congress have said Homeland Security won’t get funded until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations following fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year.

The shutdown is the third in less than a year to leave TSA workers temporarily without pay, with employees set to wait for back pay once the government reopens. Some airports reported longer security lines tied to staffing shortages as more TSA workers took second jobs, could not afford gas to get to work, or left the profession, and Homeland Security said more than 300 TSA agents have quit since the start of the shutdown.

TSA union leaders in Atlanta held a news conference Monday, warning that air travelers could face increasingly long wait times as the shutdown continues. Aaron Barker said many TSA workers “are coping with eviction notices, vehicle repossessions, empty refrigerators and overdrawn bank accounts,” while union leaders said many officers were still reporting to work.

Travel advisories issued by airports also reflected the operational strain. Louis Armstrong International Airport said on X that travelers flying out of New Orleans on Sunday and Monday were advised to arrive at least three hours early “due to impacts from the federal government’s partial shutdown.” The airport in Austin, Texas, shared a video on X taken at 5:30 a.m. local time showing the security line spilling out onto the sidewalk outside.

Back in Atlanta, Mel Stewart and his wife arrived four hours earlier than usual for their flight out of Hartsfield-Jackson to make up for longer TSA lines. Stewart said the shutdown was being “politicized way too much,” and he said, “And these people are working. They work hard, and for TSA people not to get paid, that’s silly.”