Atlanta airport experiences severe delays due to staffing shortages amid government shutdown

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The world’s busiest airport experienced severe delays due to shortage of staffing amid the government shutdown on Saturday.

Departures from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were delayed up to 145 minutes with an average of 98 minutes before the ground delay was lifted around 9 p.m.

“It sucks,” Frontier passenger Katelyn Hyland said.

Hyland is bringing her boyfriend, Allen Henry, home to Philadelphia to meet her parents for the first time.

They’re going to be late.

“Our flight was at 10:09 p.m. and it’s now scheduled for 11:46 p.m.,” she said.

They arrived more than three hours early anticipating long TSA lines, but like many other flights theirs is delayed.

“We have a car rental for as soon as we touch down so I’m worried, I don’t know what that means for our car rental when we get there if it’s delayed until tomorrow or whatever the case may be. It just affects so many things after this, including our hotel,” Hyland said. “It just affects everything.”

But shutdown implications extend beyond the airport; with SNAP funding lapsed, the Atlanta Community Food Bank (ACFB) is distributing 500,000 pounds of food every day across their 29-county service area.

“There’s just tremendous demand right now and people are very anxious and worried about how they’re going to feed their families,” Kyle Waide, president of the ACFB, said.

They’ve pulled $5 million from their reserves to disperse an additional 300,000 pounds over the next four weeks.

“That’s going to make a big difference, but it’s not going to fully meet the need that is created by this disruption,” Waide said.

In Stonecrest, the King’s Table Food Ministry at New Birth Church was prepared to feed hundreds of families at their Saturday food pantry.

“The resiliency of America is within the communities that represent it and so when we come together as one and take care of each other we can make it through anything,” Stonecrest Mayor Jazzmin Cobble said.

After ruling the Trump administration needed to at least partially fund SNAP benefits on Friday, a U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island ordered the government on Saturday to deliver a plan by Monday on how to fund SNAP accounts.