As it is a hot topic currently and is all over any news outlet you may stumble upon, the most recent partial shutdown of the U.S. government has affected many in the Aviation world. At first, we heard about how TSA had staffing concerns at airports across the country as there was an increase in the number of TSA employees calling in sick due to their federal paychecks getting withheld as a result of the partial shutdown. This slowed some security checkpoint lines at various airports, but for the most part, wait times were within standards for TSA and TSA pre, as per a recent TSA press release.
However, recently a new concern related to the partial shutdown and withheld federal paychecks came to surface as New York LaGuardia airport saw slowed down flows of arriving and departing traffic due to ATC staffing concerns. Rather than having a lack of ATC employees on site at LaGuardia, the ATC system saw a shortage of staff at Jacksonville and Washington D.C. Air Traffic Control Centers. The employees at these ATC centers are the controllers that pilots communicate with during the enroute portion of the flight, as well as the departure and arrival portions of flight once the pilots have been handed off by tower controllers and are often times the last people pilots communicate with before being transferred to a tower frequency. Due to this lack, flights from the southern and north eastern United States that were bound for LGA were delayed and held on the ground at their departure airports to accommodate for the lack of ATC employees at these centers. Some flights leaving LGA were also delayed to accommodate.
This is an important issue when considering the importance of communication in the aviation world, as effective communications between ATC and pilots are paramount for the safe operation of flight. Communication with ATC is one of the most important parts of flying, and if there are factors that can affect their operations, the aviation system is presented with a large risk. While the recent shortage of employees only resulted in some delays, it shows how truly important ATC communications are to our system.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/laguardia-airport-flights-delayed-on-friday-morning-due-to-air-traffic-control-staffing-shortages-2019-01-25-live-updates/
https://www.tsa.gov/news/releases/2019/01/21/tsa-statement-checkpoint-operations-january-21