Air travellers start to feel effects of government shutdown

The partial government shutdown is starting to affect air travel.

Over the weekend, some airports had long lines at checkpoints, apparently caused by a rising number of security officers calling in sick while they are not getting paid.

Safety inspectors aren't even on the job. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said Monday that inspectors are being called back to work on a case-by-case basis, with a priority put on inspecting airline fleets.

So far, the impact of the shutdown entering its 18th day on Tuesday has been most visible for some government buildings and national parks being closed, and trash piling up on the National Mall in front of the Capitol.

If the shutdown continues, food stamp recipients will go without aid.

By increasingly affecting air travel, however, the pain is being felt more widely.

Here are some common questions about the shutdown's impact on airports and travel, along with the answers: ___ who is supposed to keep working?
It gave few numbers but issued a statement Friday saying that more have been missing work since the Christmas and New Year's holidays. The TSA said the effect was "minimal."
On Monday, TSA tweeted that agents screened 2.22 million passengers nationwide on Sunday, which it called a "historically busy day due to holiday travel."
"It would have to get pretty bad before the government said (to airlines), 'Hey, start scaling back your plans for service,'" said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst."You could see that in a worst-case scenario."
"We're going to continue to prioritize with the resources that we have," Martin said. "Our focus is on the commercial air carriers and volumes of people they carry."
"Do you like the fox watching the hen house?" he said. "Every day the government stays shut down, it gets less safe to fly."