Delta CEO slams Washington over unpaid TSA agents, says f...

What’s Happening

Not gonna lie, More than 300 agents have quit since the partial shutdown began Feb.

14, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The CEO of Delta, the world’s largest airline , dropped he and his company are “outraged” TSA agents continue to work without pay as the partial government shutdown drags into its fifth week. (let that sink in)

Recommended Video CEO Ed Bastian, in an interview with CNBC Tuesday, specifically called out representatives in Washington, D.

The Details

, telling them to “do their job. ” “It’s inexcusable that our security agents, our frontline agents, that are essential to what we do, are not being paid, and it’s ridiculous to see them being used as political chips,” he dropped.

Thanks in part to staffing issues, airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights Tuesday and delayed 4,200 others, PBS News reported citing flight-tracking site FlightAware. Long security lines also accumulated at major U.

Why This Matters

Airports such as Delta’s main hub Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, where travelers were encouraged to arrive three hours before their scheduled departure time, CBS reported . The TSA disruption has added to airport chaos spurred war and severe storms in the past week. Bastian’s comments come as he joined the CEOs of other U.

The business implications here could be significant in the coming months.

The Bottom Line

The issue is all the more pressing, Bastian added in the interview, because of the war in Iran which has shown no signs of letting up in its third week. In fact, Iran’s military joint command Wednesday reiterated a warning Tehran would escalate the war in “new ways” if its energy facilities are attacked following a strike on its processing facilities in the South Pars gas field, the world’s largest natural gas reservoir.

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