MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Earlier this week, air traffic controllers missed their first paychecks since Washington came to a halt. Wednesday morning, a professor at the University of Memphis explained that the shutdown is likely to impact the entire Memphis International Airport.
"As you know, coming out of COVID, there have been a lot of supply chain disruptions over the years, certainly," said University of Memphis professor David Gagnon.
Gagnon is not only a professor, but he also has experience in the air traffic world. Working at FedEx for 40 years has shown him a lot. In fact, he says the current government shutdown is similar to the one that took place back in 2018.
"What we saw was obviously longer lines, longer dwell times. You saw dwell times, I think, in the port of Long Beach [that] increased by about 20%," he said.
Gagnon says it's still unknown how bad the impact could be; everything depends on how long the halt will last. But Gagnon says after air traffic workers didn't receive a full paycheck this week, the issue could get worse.
"This is really the perfect storm if you think about it, because you already have staffing shortages in FAA. You have upgrades they're trying to do with technology," he said.
He goes on to say workers are feeling the burden. With about 19,000 airplanes in the air, 44% of those are cargo planes and 56% are passenger planes.
"If you think about it, I was listening to the secretary of transportation. He was talking yesterday. He said, 'Look, here's the deal. We'll slow it down. We'll stop it to be safe,'" Gagnon said.
He doesn't believe they will be stopping transferring cargo anytime soon, but does think we could be seeing a delay as the shutdown continues.
Click here to sign up for our newsletter!