Travel industry sounds alarm over how shutdown will impact Americans ahead of Thanksgiving

Fox News ^ | November 6, 2025 | Alec Schemmel

[MinorityRepublican]

Hundreds of tourism and travel industry groups are warning those planning to fly this Thanksgiving holiday that if the government shutdown doesn't end before the holiday arrives, passengers could face higher costs and increased wait times, delays and cancellations that could derail family travel plans across the country.

Meanwhile, the groups, collectively under the banner of the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group representing the U.S. travel industry, also warned in a letter to leaders in Congress of long-term economic impacts that could hurt American workers, businesses and the economy amid the Thanksgiving holiday if the current government shutdown does not come to an end soon. The trade group estimates America's travel economy has already lost $4 billion due to the shutdown.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Travel Association sent a letter to Senate leaders John Thune and Chuck Schumer, as well as their counterparts in the House, Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries, urging the leaders to come to an agreement and pass "a clean continuing resolution" that will reopen the government after weeks of a shutdown that has been the longest in history. Democrats and Republicans have been gridlocked over whether to approve enhanced tax credits for Obamacare passed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The letter warned that the longer the government is shutdown, the more money the travel economy will lose, leading to negative downstream economic impacts. Additionally, the letter, which was undersigned by nearly 500 travel and tourism industry organizations, warned that the longer the shutdown remains, the more strain airports will face from staffing shortages, which, if exacerbated further, could lead to major "chaos" as families try to fly for the Thanksgiving holiday.

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TOPICS: Politics/Elections
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[Brian Griffin]

Pretty stewardesses with $100 bills could stand outside air traffic control office entrances around shift change time.

[RummyChick]

This is a different issue than when Reagan took on the air traffic controllers and shut down air space.

They will come up with a deal before Thanksgiving week. I predict by next week as the temperature rises and people lose their minds at the airports. Pics from Houston are ridiculous.

[napscoordinator]

Yeah. No way this nonsense goes past Thanksgiving. Time for everyone to put their heads together and get this thing done.

[dfwgator]

"You're F_____!"

[Brian Griffin]

Smartwatch, Built-in Alexa, GPS, VO2 Max, HRV, Blood Oxygen, Sleep Monitoring, Women’s Health, Custom Reminders, Sports Tracking, 1.32” AMOLED, Compass, Altimeter (Bluetooth, Gold, 43mm)

Yes, it supports multiple global positioning systems, including China’s BeiDou, the US’s GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, the EU’s Galileo, and Japan’s QZSS. This ensures accurate tracking for your running routes and other activities.

You can interact with Alexa directly on the watch, allowing you to control any Alexa-enabled devices and perform Alexa-supported tasks.

“I get all my notifications right on my wrist—texts, and calls. It’s super convenient because I don’t have to constantly check my phone, especially when I’m busy or on the go. I can even read messages or take calls directly from the watch, which is a nice time-saver.”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DDL6B9KN

$99.49

Some simple rules of the sky, a watch on every pilot’s hand, some servers, connections to radars, and some software is all it takes to put an air traffic controller in every cockpit.

[MinorityRepublican]

Uniparty

[DoodleBob]

The letter warned that the longer the government is shutdown, the more money the travel economy will lose, leading to negative downstream economic impacts

At the seem time, the money not spent on air travel may go toward more productive uses, like investment, debt service, purchases from local business, and so on.

Yes, everyone in the airline value chain may suffer. But that doesn’t mean we ALL suffer.

[Fledermaus]

Fear porn

[lightman]

Round One of the Democrap War on Thanksgiving was through the $camdemic of 2020-2021.

Here comes Round Two.

[irishjuggler]

Maybe this has all been hashed out before, and maybe there’s a great reason for the system being the way that it is, but why not divorce ATCs from the federal payroll? Couldn’t there be some kind of alternate system in which the airports pay the salaries of ATCs out of landing fees charged to airlines and private operators who use their runways? What am I missing here?

[FlingWingFlyer]

The Travel industry might want to tell their employees who to vote for.

[jerod]

Despite the election of a left of center lunatic mayor in that mental asylum typically referred to as New York city... The DumocRATs are not winning the shutdown debate... The smart Dems know that and if they want any chance at all in 2026, they better pony up and end the shutdown before thanksgiving.

[No name given]

Yep.

[Paladin2]

Eisenhower’s rip off of the German Autobahns turned out to be Genius.

[Nateman]

More people will opt to drive . That means more people are going to die on the road than otherwise.

[Cronos]

Those days are gone - nowadays the trolley-dolly’s are worked hard and the job is no longer glamorous or well-paying in comparison to other opportunities for PYTs

[Cronos]

Air traffic control (ATC) is a highly complex, safety-critical field where human oversight remains essential, even as AI and automation play increasing roles in assisting controllers.

While technology can handle routine tasks like monitoring trajectories or suggesting routes, full replacement by AI, automation, and robotics is not feasible as:

1. Lots of unpredictability sudden weather changes, mechanical failures, bird strikes, or medical emergencies on board. AI systems are trained on historical data and predefined algorithms, but they struggle with novel situations that require intuitive problem-solving or creative decision-making.

2. Human Judgment and Decision-Making - these guyss make a lot of quick judgement calls

In short, this is too random for AI to be effective. It can help, but not replace

[GingisK]

Somebody has been Borged.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

If no agreement is reached and the country collapses, I guess Trump is a failed president. This seems to be working well for the DemocRats, with help from Quislings in the Senate.