On Tuesday, the U.S. began a partial shutdown of federal government services after that nation's Congress was unable to come to a budget agreement to keep the government functioning at full capacity. In the short run, the has had limited impact on the international air travel grid that not only takes Latin American travelers to and from major U.S. entry airports like Miami, Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles, but links airports throughout Central and South America with destinations in Europe and Asia.
No shutdown-related delays were reported in any of those major international gateway airports in the U.S. on Tuesday or Wednesday, the first two days of the shutdown.
That's because the key government-paid workers who keep the system running at U.S. airports have all been designated as essential government employees and are not among the 800,000 U.S. federal employees furloughed from their jobs as part of the shutdown. These essential workers include air traffic controllers air marshals and the legions of airport screeners who work for the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), as well as U.S. Customs officers and officers of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
U.S. Embassies and Consulates around Latin America remain open and are continuing to process applications for U.S. visas, as well as passport applications from U.S. citizens abroad. The reasons for that are twofold: passport and visa applications carry fees that generate revenue for the U.S. government, and the U.S. State Department has announced it has a backlog of funding that will allow continued operations of embassies and consulates for a while.
But the State Department did not specify how long its funding reserves would last, and at least two Latin American locations, the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, and the U.S. Consulate in Guayaquil, Ecuador, have announced that they expect some reduction in services, especially if the government shutdown lasts long. U.S. embassies and consulates are expected to focus on their diplomatic mission and on emergency aid for traveling U.S. citizens if the shutdown lasts long enough that funding runs low.
In the long-term, shutdown-related staffing cutbacks that began Tuesday will pose problems for the international air travel network, industry experts say. The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) furloughed 3,000 aircraft inspectors, who inspect and certify not only commercial aircraft based in the U.S., but foreign-based aircraft that fly into that nation.
A spokesperson for the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists Union has said that aircraft that don't get inspections on schedule could be grounded, thus reducing the number of airline seats available to passengers flying in and out of the United States.
Additionally, while air traffic controllers have not been furloughed, FAA employees who train new air traffic controllers have been, which could reduce the controller workforce over time. And overtime pay for air traffic controllers has been suspended for the duration of the shutdown.
Illustration �iStockphoto.com/Photomorphic