(The Center Square) – Severe weather piled into an already taxed airport issue with missing TSA workers Monday, causing North America’s seventh busiest airport to nearly double flight cancellations of the previous seven days.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport had 433 cancellations and 663 delays on Monday. The airport, like many across the country, is battling having enough Transportation Security Administration personnel, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security working without pay during the partial government shutdown.
At one point during the storm in the morning, a ground stop was ordered for safety reasons. Power outages were multiple in the area, and an EF-0 tornado was confirmed.
The combination was tough on travelers.
Nationwide, estimates are 1 in 10 not showing up. Several reports include former TSA workers saying they had to find other permanent work.
The partial government shutdown began Feb. 14 after a Jan. 30 deadline was not met and an extension was given, impacting thousands of Transportation Security Administration personnel. TSA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, the 1/12th of the congressional budget yet to be funded.
For context between the politicians’ polar opposite blame, Democrats have demands for reforms on immigration enforcement, a desire to separate agencies within Homeland Security, and accountability. Republicans believe the department as constructed for cohesive consideration of national threats does not need changing, and the House of Representatives has already passed bipartisan funding that isn’t able to get past Senate Democrats.
Charlotte Douglas had 244 cancellations and 2,853 delays over the seven days ending Sunday, according to tracking platform FlightAware. The last time the airport had so many cancellations in a single day was Jan. 25-26, when more than 1,600 over two days were halted by a major winter snowstorm.
Numbers were not as high though similar impact was evident at Raleigh-Durham International and Piedmont Triad International in Greensboro. RDU had 85 cancellations and 216 delays; Greensboro had 29 and 45, respectively.
