National Deployment Force officers have been drafted into major US airports to carry out security checks after one in 10 security staff called in sick over the weekend.
The normal absence rate for Transportation Security Administration staff at this time of year is about 3%, but more staff are calling in sick rather than working without pay during the US government partial shutdown.
The shutdown, which means there’s no money to pay around 800,000 government employees, including airport security staff, is now in its fifth week.
As a result of staff shortages, passengers are seeing longer security queues at some airports. A checkpoint at Baltimore airport was shut down on two occasions over the weekend due to a lack of staff, but reopened on Monday.
"Some airports experienced longer than usual wait times," the TSA said, adding that the average waiting times are within the 30-minute standard for regular screening lanes. Of the 1.78 million passengers screened on Sunday, the TSA said fewer than 7% had to wait longer than 15 minutes.
National Deployment Force officers, who make up the TSA’s rapid response team, have been drafted into several airports including Newark, New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.
The shutdown has been caused by a row between President Donald Trump and the US Congress over his demands for $5.7 billion to build a wall on the Mexican border.
