It’s total chaos in the airports and skies of the United States. If the shutdown continues, the reduction in air traffic in the country could reach 20% over the course of this weekend, according to the US Secretary of Transportation. The shutdown in the United States that began last October 1st, the first in seven years, has become the longest in American history, setting a record.
This term – shutdown, literally “switching off” – indicates the blocking of all non-essential administrative and governmental activities in the country: a procedure that is decided by the Government every time Congress does not reach an agreement on the budget law and, consequently, administrative activities are not refinanced and therefore “switched off”, until a compromise is reached and the funds to pay salaries and services are released.
The previous longest shutdown record in history was in 2019, during Donald Trump’s first term, and lasted 34 days. In the last fifty years, America has experienced administrative blockades about twenty times. The shutdown does not imply total paralysis of the state: it does not impact essential services such as the post office, the military and assistance programs such as social security and food stamps. But federal employees don’t receive pay until the shutdown ends. And a vast series of services is interrupted, obviously causing inconveniences that can even be serious, as is happening in recent days with the paralysis of air traffic.
More than 5,000 flights in total have been canceled or delayed due to the shutdown tens of thousands of air traffic controllers and airport security personnel remained without pay. The shortage of air traffic people has had a very heavy impact, especially on domestic flights. Some large airports such as those in New York, Atlanta, San Francisco and Washington have been particularly affected.
The shutdown also has repercussions on Italy: over 4 thousand Italian workers employed on American military bases in our country risk being left without pay as long as the blockade of administrative activities in the United States continues. There are five US bases in Italy: in Aviano, Vicenza, Livorno, Naples and Sigonella. Italian employees are hired directly by the US Ministry of Defense on the basis of a bilateral agreement.
(Ansa photo: canceled flights at San Francisco international airport)
