DHS Shutdown Triggers Hundreds of Flight Cancellations, Airport Chaos Nationwide

Cameron Coachums, a union steward and lead TSA officer in Boise, Idaho, put it plainly: "You're waiting in line because government can't do their job and it's ruining people's lives."

His words captured what travelers across the country experienced as the Department of Homeland Security's 34-day shutdown produced security lines stretching into airport parking lots, more than 700 flight cancellations and delays nationwide, and TSA checkpoints so short-staffed that agents were reporting to work without paychecks.

At Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, CBS News correspondent Skyler Henry reported wait times at the main checkpoint already approaching an hour on Wednesday morning. Atlanta was one of three major airports where more than one-third of TSA officers called out of work on Tuesday alone. Since agents missed their first full paycheck last Friday, the TSA agency acknowledged a higher-than-average rate of unscheduled absences has taken hold across the system.

The conditions were even more severe at other hubs. Fox News reported wait times of 3.5 hours at major airports, with lines spilling out of terminals and into parking structures. Some airports began advising travelers to arrive up to four hours before departure.

Compounding the disruption, the TSA suspended updates to its public website and mobile app on Feb. 17. A message on the site stated it "will not be updated until after funding is enacted," leaving passengers without the real-time wait time information they would normally rely on. A TSA spokesperson confirmed that the staff managing the website and app had been furloughed, directing travelers instead to check individual airport websites and social media accounts.

The 700-plus cancellations and delays marked a deepening crisis that aviation experts warned would likely worsen the longer the funding lapse continued. PBS noted that during a prior shutdown, about one month in, TSA temporarily closed two checkpoints at Philadelphia International Airport and the federal government took the extraordinary step of ordering all commercial airlines to reduce their domestic flight schedules. Trade groups representing the U.S. travel industry and major airlines warned the current situation carried the same trajectory.

John Clark, a traveler arriving at Detroit Metropolitan Airport from a business trip in Mississippi, said the disruption struck close to home. "You might not be able to get home if you're already out, or it might delay if you worked all week and you're trying to get home," Clark said.

The shutdown's reach extended well beyond airport security lines. FEMA was described as operating with a bare-bones staff, its emergency fund "dangerously low," and restricted to responding only to immediate disasters, unable to continue operations for existing recovery projects. That limitation hit hard as the agency attempted to support communities still recovering from Hurricane Helene while frigid winter storms had battered the Northeast last month and a record number of tornadoes tore through the Midwest.

The political deadlock driving the shutdown remained unresolved as of Thursday. Republicans placed blame squarely on Senate Democrats, arguing they had "shut down DHS with the intention of kneecapping President Trump's effective immigration policies," while noting that ICE and CBP continued to operate through separate OBBBA funding. Democrats, for their part, said they would not approve more DHS funding until new restrictions were placed on federal immigration operations, a position tied to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis last month.

With spring break travel at its peak and no deal in sight, the White House and Democratic lawmakers had failed to reach an agreement before Congress left Washington for a 10-day break, though members were placed on notice to return if a deal was struck.