More than a week into the federal government shut down, the Salt Lake City International Airport reports they aren’t seeing any major effects that passengers can see.
As the government shutdown continues, though, it is affecting federal workers on whom the airport relies — because they are continued to work while their paychecks are withheld. (President Donald Trump even suggested Tuesday that those paychecks could potentially be canceled, AP News reported.)
Airport officials are keeping an eye on the shutdown and how it might affect operations, said Nancy Volmer, the airport’s director of communications and marketing. In the meantime, she said, officials plan to help federal workers any way they can.
Volmer said she recently took a flight out of Salt Lake City’s airport, and was impressed with workers’ cheerful demeanor as everything ran smoothly.
Delays have been reported at airports across the country because of a shortage of air traffic controllers, NBC News reported. Those airports include Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, as well as airports near Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Nashville, Philadelphia and Phoenix.
Salt Lake airport officials, Volmer said, are planning to provide a place where government workers can pick up basic necessities. Details are still being worked out, she said, but the effort should resemble actions the airport took during the last government shutdown, which lasted 35 days between December 2018 and January 2019, during the first Trump administration.
“What I’m asking is that anyone who is flying: Just be really considerate of frontline workers,” she said. “Be patient, because they are really facing some unusual, very difficult circumstances.”