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OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
10:57 AM – Friday, October 31, 2025
Vice President JD Vance has warned that should the government shutdown continue, holiday air travel this year will be a “disaster.”
On Thursday, the vice president held a roundtable at the White House with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R-N.H.), Airlines for America CEO Nicholas Calio and various aviation industry leaders. He said they were, “very worried that we’re going to see more delays, more stresses on the people who are actually making the aviation system run.”
“It could be a disaster,” Vance told reporters following the meeting.
Due to the shutdown, air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers are working without compensation, causing fundamental airport personnel to be understaffed and delayed.
“At that point, you’re talking about people having missed three paychecks. They’ve missed four paychecks. How many of them are not going to show up for work?” Vance said. “You take the TSA lines that are already too long, even right now, and say half of those people don’t show up for work. Not because they’re not hard workers or good people but because they’ve got to find a different job to feed their families.”
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“What happens when the security lines are not an hour long but they’re four hours long? What happens when pilots start not showing up for work because they’re so focused on paying the bills, they can’t fly the plane safely? That’s going to lead to massive delays,” he continued. “We want the aviation industry to work. It’s not going to work unless the Democrats reopen the government.”
Duffy emphasized that November could be even worse for airports, as it’s typically a busier time for air travel.
The transportation secretary told those with delayed flights to direct complaints to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has been leading the charge against the House-passed funding bill that would end the shutdown.
The shutdown entered its 31st day on Friday, spanning a full month. The longest government shutdown was 35 days in 2019. Republicans are urging Democrats to vote for the budget bill that would have kept the government funded for November to reach the required 60-vote filibuster. President Donald Trump recently called for Republican senators to end the filibuster to hopefully bring the shutdown to an end.
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