The San Antonio Airport says no significant problems are anticipated here.
SAN ANTONIO — If you’re flying soon your travel plans could hit a snag due to the government shut down which is now entering its eighth day. The FAA reports that some air traffic control centers around the country are severely short staffed.
Even if the San Antonio Airport is operating smoothly and on time, all it takes in one major airport in the country to have significant delays that could ripple to other airports across the U.S., to affect flights in and out of the Alamo City.
“I’m not losing it right now because I don’t have to. Wait until later on tonight. If we don’t have any flights, you might see a different composure here,” said Romeo Gonzalez, who is from New York City, and spent the last week visiting San Antonio, but is flying back to the Big Apple today. He hasn’t had any travel delays but feels for federal workers here at the airport working through the shutdown. He told us, “We gave our blessings to all of the TSA workers and we made sure to tell them to hang in there and hopefully in time things will change.”
To cut down on delays, the FAA manages air traffic nationwide in different ways, sometimes doing ground stops at an overwhelmed airport, or delaying how many flights are taking off to a specific airport if there’s too much congestion.
If you do get stuck, Jocelyn Steiner, who is traveling to Colombia through Dallas with her siblings Christopher and Kiara, told us, “I’m kind of concerned about delays because it has happened before. I think if your flight is delayed you get a hotel or stay with family if you have them there.”
In a statement, the San Antonio airport said, in part, “Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers and air traffic controllers are considered essential personnel and will continue to report for duty. As a result, travelers should not expect significant changes to airport operations. As a department of the City of San Antonio, we maintain close contact with and support our federal partners to ensure the overall integrity, safety and security of airport operations—and of all passengers and visitors.”
Gonzalez’ advice to anyone traveling? He says, “If you have to go then by all means try to get out.”