Government shutdown continues to impact Central Texas airports and its federal employees

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - The ongoing government shutdown continues to affect Central Texas airports and their federal employees, with aviation safety specialists working without pay while struggling to maintain critical equipment.

Timothy Lindsey, a local union representative for the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, says he and his coworkers have not received paychecks for the last 40 days now.

“We’re all still working, none of us are furloughed, we’re still having to drive in,” Lindsey explained, “I was a little bit more prepared but there’s people I work with that were feeling it day one”.

Lindsey says one of their main concerns is maintenance on aviation systems. “The biggest impact is not being able to get parts for doing maintenance and keeping stuff up,” he shared.

Because of this aviation specialists are having to forgo some maintenance until the government reopens.

“We still monitor and keep everything certified and working, but if we have a radar system goes out and we’re not able to get parts for it or get the oil for it or go and do some of the maintenance on it, it can then start having trickling effects,” Lindsey said.

Adding that if they cannot restore equipment, there is a better chance something could go wrong.

“We have the safest airspace in the world and we have the best technicians in the world maintaining and working on this stuff, but the reason why it’s the safest in the world is also because of some of our redundancies… where we have something else that backs that up,” he further explained.

Which is why they are hoping the government reopens soon, Lindsey sharing that they have been told it could happen this week.

“If everything went perfectly, the government may not get turned back on until Thursday at the earliest,” he said.

But even if the government reopens, they still have to wait for furloughed employees to process everything, meaning they would not get their backpay until a week later. They will also have to play catch up on maintenance.

“We got to catch up on the things that we weren’t able to do, repair some of the things that we weren’t able to repair cause we didn’t have the parts, and we’re gonna be ordering those parts… but we’re going to have everything up and going as fast as possible,” Lindsey said.

At Waco Regional Airport, one of their three arrivals and one of their three departures was canceled. At Killeen Regional Airport, two of six arrivals were cancelled, as well as two of six departures.

Copyright 2025 KWTX. All rights reserved.