BILLINGS — If Congress can't reach a spending deal by Oct.1, there would be a lapse in federal funding that could disrupt air travel for many across the country.
Marc Dean is the owner of Family Fun Scuba & Snorkel in Billings, and he's in the business of travel. He says that if there's a delay in travel, it can be wide-reaching.
"It’s much larger than just a government shutdown also. If you shut the planes down, then the hotels get hurt, if the hotels get hurt, the food industry gets hurt, and then the merchandising gets hurt and the cabs and this and that get hurt. Anything that’s related to the people traveling A to B, there’s a whole network that spiderwebs out to multiple other businesses," said Dean.
Billings Director of Aviation and Transit at Billings Logan International Airport Jeff Roach says it will be business as usual for the airport.
"We’re not worried because in previous government shutdowns, the stakeholders that we operate with have been very professional and have continued to operate as normal. So, we don’t expect to see any day-to-day impacts to our operations of the airport," said Roach on Wednesday.
Nationwide there’s a shortage of roughly 3,000 air traffic controllers and a shutdown would mean a delay in hiring, resulting in even more shortages down the line.
Roach mentioned the Billings airport is currently fully staffed.
The biggest question remains the morale of the federal aviation workers who might not see a paycheck should the shutdown take place.
"Even on the human element, asking these people to go X amount of time without any sort of income, while bills stack up. (It's) not like the bills will stop or the kids stop eating. My bigger concern is of the workers themselves," said Billings visitor Spencer Martin at the Billings airport on Wednesday.
Martin mentioned that while he's not worried about running into delays, it could add to stressful plans for many as the holidays quickly approach.
"Traveling is difficult anyway. You add something like this to the mix, the unknown, people fear the unknown and it creates not a great situation for people trying to travel," Martin added.
But for businesses like Dean's that rely heavily on air travel, he said he plans to just try to make the best of the situation should a lockout take place.
"My knee-jerk reaction is ‘oh no’ and it’s just going to take a lot more preparation and investigation on our part to make sure things are as flawless and seamless as they can be. Or making sure we go to airports that are fully staffed, those may be the airports we wish to go through versus the ones that are having hard times," Dean said.
