airports

Across the country, collections are popping up to help Transportation Security Administration officers who have been without full pay for more than a month due to the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security.

The charity World Central Kitchen, more accustomed to feeding those in war zones and disaster areas, started providing meals to Washington, D.C.-area airports after many TSA officers missed their first full paycheck.

On Thursday, Feeding San Diego began distributing 400 boxes with pasta, beans and peanut butter as well as fresh produce such as strawberries and potatoes to affected agents near the airport after a request from TSA and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

Nonprofits are stepping in to help and coordinating with airports and local TSA offices because ethics rules around giving gifts to federal employees make it difficult for those affected by the shutdown to receive help directly.

Carissa Casares from Feeding San Diego said communicating with the airport means they can better tailor their resources and response to TSA workers’ needs.

“We need to work directly with the people who have direct access to these employees and get this food to them at a time and location that is most convenient to them,” Casares said.

Sunday marks the 37th day that the Department of Homeland Security has been shut down after Democrats refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection without changes to their operations after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. Democrats this weekend tried to advance a bill to fund TSA separately, but Republicans balked, saying all of Homeland Security needed to be funded.

More than 120,000 Homeland Security employees are working without pay, including roughly 50,000 TSA officers, as negotiations between lawmakers and the White House on limits to immigration enforcement drag on.

The funding lapse comes just months after a 43-day government shutdown, the longest in the nation’s history, which caused long lines at food banks across the U.S. as more than 700,000 federal workers worked without pay.

Rules limit what help TSA officers can accept

For those wanting to help, it’s not as simple as going to the airport and giving cash or gift cards directly to TSA officers, who are prohibited from accepting gifts at screening locations, according to a Homeland Security spokesperson.

But Aaron Barker, president of the AFGE Local 554 in Georgia, said TSA officer unions don’t have the same restrictions and can accept donations to distribute to their members. Barker recommends those who want to donate look up their local union district on the AFGE website, or give through their local labor council.

“For some people it can be life or death,” said Barker. “It’s just sad and terrible that this is happening.”

Union members have told Barker they’re unable to cover utility bills or pay for their children’s medical procedures. They’ve received eviction notices or had cars repossessed, and they’re having trouble affording routine items.

“People don’t think about the things they just naturally have in their home, like toothpaste, bathroom tissue, milk, detergent, dish liquid,” he said. “I’m sure those things are a necessity for every TSA officer.”

Nonetheless, no donation can be as effective as an end to the shutdown. “The first thing they want is their paycheck,” said Barker. “The money is the most immediate need.”

Coordination between nonprofits and TSA

Operation Food Search is working closely with TSA to safely deliver food and set up a temporary pantry at St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

The Missouri hunger relief nonprofit’s chief executive, Kristen Wild, said it is the first time the group has distributed directly to TSA employees where they work.

“It removes their need to make an extra trip and drive here,” Wild said. “So we’re really excited that the airport allowed us to directly serve right there.”

They gave away just over half their 400 prepared food bags during a two-hour period last week, according to Wild. Each bag contained nearly $20 worth of nonperishables such as apple sauce, pasta, rice and beans. Rules prohibit federal employees from soliciting or accepting gifts or items of monetary value greater than $20 if the gift is related to their government position.

Wild said she thought the $20 limit might be waived since they were distributing food through airport-approved channels.

“We didn’t know for sure,” she said. “But to play it safe we just kept it right under the $20 per bag amount so there would be no challenge to it.”

Airport communities band together

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport officials were fielding PETA donations and local food banks’ pallets on Friday afternoon as they stocked their private pantry for off-shift TSA staff.

But they’ve also seen dining vendors, usually tasked with feeding hungry travelers, step up. Airport tenants have offered discounts and donated through TSA to cover entire shifts’ meals, according to airport spokesperson Perry Cooper.

“You know a lot of these people,” Cooper said. “You see faces … throughout the day as you’re wandering through. And then to realize that some of these folks are here and they’re not getting paid, you know, really tugs at your heart to think what’s a way that we can help.”

The airport community’s support adds to the roughly $6,000 they’ve received in cash and gift cards plus another $10,000 worth of food and household products, Cooper said. That includes donations from the labor union for air traffic controllers, whose jobs are unaffected by this partial shutdown but understand the strain of working without pay, as they did during last year’s full government shutdown.

More than 460 people picked up fresh produce when local nonprofit Food Lifeline brought a truckload recently, according to Cooper. Most of the attendees were TSA staff, Cooper said, though some might have been homeless. Boxes including pineapples and broccoli lined folding tables along the airport’s main drive.

Regular travelers like Musie Hidad said he thinks about the TSA agents working unpaid every time he enters through security.

“The work they are doing is serious and they aren’t getting paid for it,” said Hidad, an Amarillo, Texas, resident, who was traveling to Ohio for work. “My heart goes out to them.”

Angueira, Beaty and Pollard write for the Associated Press. AP video journalist Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

What began as a social media post from President Trump on Saturday has grown quickly into a full-scale plan to deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports.

Amid a partial government shutdown, TSA lines have grown to be hours long at some U.S. airports, creating problems for travelers across the country. Call-out rates have started to increase at some airports, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said at least 376 TSA agents have quit since the partial shutdown began Feb. 14.

White House border advisor Tom Homan said that ICE plans to dispatch agents to airports as soon as Monday, and that he was working with other officials to determine where to send agents.

“It’s a work in progress,” Homan said during a Sunday appearance on CNN. “But we will be at the airports tomorrow helping TSA move those lines along.”

Homan stressed that ICE agents would provide support where possible, so that TSA staffers could better fulfill specialized positions.

“I don’t see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine, because they are not trained in that,” Homan said.

On Saturday, President Trump posted to social media, “If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before.”

The pushback to the White House plans was immediate.

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security, released a statement that read, “Masked, armed police at travel checkpoints is a hallmark of dystopian movies. Now, Donald Trump is threatening to bring this tool of fascism to America. He is manufacturing chaos at airports for political leverage and trying to force Democrats to accept unaccountable secret police at security checkpoints around the country.”

Also speaking to CNN on Sunday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “The last thing that the American people need are for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports all across the country, potentially to brutalize or, in some instances, kill them. We’ve already seen how ICE conducts itself.”

Representatives from Los Angeles International Airport did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for Orange County’s John Wayne Airport said she was not currently aware of any communication or Homeland Security guidance on the proposed plan.

A spokesperson for San Francisco International Airport said airport officials have not yet received anything specific from Homeland Security about a deployment of ICE agents. He said SFO security personnel are not part of TSA, and as a result, the airport has not had any checkpoint backups.

WASHINGTON — Republican and Democratic senators vented their frustrations with the lack of progress in funding the Department of Homeland Security, which is resulting in more Americans enduring long lines at airports around the country. It’s a problem that is expected to intensify as the impasse enters its fourth week.

Democrats stressed they were willing to fund some of Homeland Security, but not Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, without changes in their operations. Republicans made clear that some of the Democratic demands were a non-starter. The result was that each party blocked the other’s proposal for temporarily resolving the standoff during an hours-long debate Wednesday on the Senate floor.

The stark divide over a shutdown that began on Feb. 14 was acknowledged by members on both sides of the political aisle.

“We are in a negotiation. However, we are not close,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said at one point. “You may think this is some issue that we think we’re going to turn to our political advantage, but I promise you, when we saw Renee Good and Alex Pretti killed, this became an issue that was beyond politics.”

“And there are a lot of us who are not going to provide resources to this agency that is acting in such a ways that makes citizens of the United States so unsafe.”

Some Republicans were just as adamant that they oppose some of the changes Democrats are seeking to make.

“Let me be clear, we are going to do nothing — nothing — that kneecaps ICE’s ability to enforce our immigration laws,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).

Following the longest federal shutdown in the country’s history last year, Congress completed work on 11 of this year’s 12 appropriations bills. Only the bill for Homeland Security remains outstanding.

Democrats are seeking several changes at the department that include prohibiting ICE enforcement operations at sensitive locations like schools and churches, allowing independent investigations into alleged wrongdoing, requiring warrants to be signed by judges before federal agents can forcibly enter private homes or other nonpublic spaces without consent, and requiring agents to wear identification and remove their masks.

A push for more talks

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said his side has made repeated overtures to Democrats on a funding bill. He said the last offer on Homeland Security funding came from the White House nearly two weeks ago and there has been no response from the Democrats.

“Usually, around here, in order to get a deal, there has to be a negotiation where the two sides sit down together,” Thune said. “And my understanding is that has been completely rebuffed by the senator from Washington.”

The senator Thune was referring to, Sen. Patty Murray, the lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she’s continued to talk with Republican colleagues, but those aren’t “real negotiations.” The White House needs to be at the table for that to occur. She said she needed assurance that Stephen Miller, the influential White House deputy chief of staff, would not upend any agreements that senators reach.

“I am willing to talk to people, but I’m not willing to sit in a room, have coffee, give away a few things and have Stephen Miller override whatever we all agree to,” Murray said. “ … We need to know the White House is serious.”

Homeland Security has been central to President Trump’s sweeping changes in immigration enforcement. Under Trump, the number of people ICE arrests and detains each month has climbed dramatically. The tactics that ICE has employed have generated alarm among Democrats, and some Republicans have also called for a more “strategic” approach.

During bipartisan negotiations earlier this year, appropriators agreed to a Homeland Security funding bill that did include more resources for de-escalation training and $20 million to outfit immigration enforcement agents with body-worn cameras. But that deal unraveled after the Pretti shooting in Minneapolis.

“My side was not going to stand down and say, ‘oh well, nothing happened,’” Murray said.

For the second time in two weeks, Murray offered a proposal to fund all of Homeland Security except for ICE and Customs and Border Protection, but Republicans objected.

Similarly, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) offered a proposal to fund all of Homeland Security for two weeks so that federal workers could get paid and government operations could continue while the two sides negotiate their differences on immigration enforcement. This time, Democrats objected.

The result was the standoff continues, but lawmakers were at least talking to each other, perhaps one small sign of progress.

Shutdown strains air travel

The large majority of the more than 260,000 employees at Homeland Security continue to work but are going unpaid. It’s the second time in recent months they’ve had to work without pay after last fall’s record, 43-day shutdown. The most visible sign of the shutdown has been a shortage of Transportation Security Administration screeners at airports.

Houston’s secondary airport weathered the worst problems, with lines consistently lasting over three hours for much of Sunday and Monday. Passengers also had to wait more than an hour to get through security at several other airports, including in New Orleans and Atlanta.

Homeland Security in a social media post Wednesday blamed Democrats for a shutdown that “has led to HOURS long security lines at airports across the country, leading Americans to miss their spring break flights.”

Trade groups are also worried about the economic impact of the travel delays. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce called on Congress to quickly approve a funding bill and end the department’s shutdown.

“Blocking operational funding and paychecks for those who help us travel safely is wrong and strains the air travel system,” said Neil Bradley, the business group’s executive vice president and chief policy officer.

Freking writes for the Associated Press.

RYANAIR is scrapping more flights to Spain and it will affect one of the country’s popular airports.

The budget airline has already axed millions of seats in recent months, citing expensive airport fees and charges.

And Ryanair has since confirmed that Girona Airport will be the latest victim, with 11 per cent fewer seats next summer.

The airline cited the “failed fee system” for the removals of seats, according to local media.

Alejandra Ruiz, the airline’s spokesperson in Spain, said: “Ryanair had ambitious growth plans for Catalonia’s regional airports, where it could have allocated a fifth aircraft to Girona, a new base in Reus, and unprecedented growth at both airports under competitive and beneficial conditions for all airlines.

“However, we are still waiting for a response from the Spanish government, which has no plans to fix these regional airports.”

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Girona Airport is often used as an alternative to travel to Barcelona, as well as to Costa Brava.

Last year it reported more than 2.1million passengers in 2025 travelling through – its highest numbers since 2013.

Flights to Barcelona will grow, however, with two per cent more capacity, with another six per cent growth in seats for Reus.

And flights to El Prat – one of Spain’s busiest airports – will increase capacity despite being reduced by five per cent over the winter.

Ruiz added: “Our commitment to Barcelona remains strong and we will continue to grow, albeit at a more moderate pace until the airport expands.

Earlier this year, Ryanair confirmed that all flights to and from the Azores will be cancelled from March 29.

Affecting around 400,000 passengers who visit a year, this also includes routes from London.

More than two million seats have been axed across Spain which includes Santiago, Tenerife North and Vigo.

The only direct flights to Vigo from the UK were with Ryanair so Brits will now have to connect to fly to the Spanish city.

Ryanair boss Michel O’Leary warned at the time that “if the costs in regional Spain are too high, I will fly elsewhere”.

Last summer, Ryanair suspended all flights from the UK to flights to Brive and Bergerac, although flights to the latter have been restored.

And Riga in Latvia has also been hit with all routes from Edinburgh scrapped.

Otherwise here is a pretty European island that will be getting new Ryanair flights this year.

MAJOR airports in Spain are introducing Brit-only border control to avoid travel chaos this summer.

New EES requirements have resulted in large queues at airports for British holidaymakers.

According to local media, the Spanish operator Aena has revealed that four airports will adapt their security and border control for Brits.

These airports are in Ibiza, Menorca, Malaga and Palma, Majorca.

It’s set to be put in place to ease the queues caused by new EES rules.

These will have a single access point to non-Schengen boarding zones to be used only by UK and non-EU passengers.

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There’s concern that the new EES requirement is causing delays in airports and will only grow during peak travel times, like the summer holidays.

Officials have expressed their worry that queues could be up to four hours or more.

The changes form part of Aena’s huge investment plan to its airports set to take place between 2027-2031.

These airports will use the investment ‘redesign control areas to improve passenger flow’.

They will allocate 29 per cent more space for passengers to ‘ensure smoother processing and better service quality’.

Malaga Airport could receive €1.5billion (£1.3billion) which could see it double the size of the terminal and increase capacity to handle 36million passengers each year.

Palma Airport (called Son Sant Joan) could receive €621.6million (just over £544million) for upgrades.

The investment is set to go towards the airport’s platforms, runway and taxiway pavements, taxiways, and renovation of boarding bridges.

In the case of Ibiza, the investment is set to be €229.7million (£201million), and in Menorca, the investment will reach €170.7million (£149million).

It will also include the adaptation to border control regulations to improve its efficiency.

At all four of the upgrade plans at these airports include allocated areas for Brits and non-EU passengers.

In order to fund the investment, Aena has proposed an average annual increasing its fees for airlines.

This hasn’t been well-received by the likes of Ryanair which has planned to axe over a million seats to certain Spanish routes, with some being cut down or cancelled completely.

Here’s more on the Spanish city which is getting MORE Ryanair flights after budget airline scrapped millions of seats.

And here are the cheapest destinations to fly to from six major UK airports including Spanish resorts to Greek islands.

TWO UK airports will be much easier to travel to in less than two weeks and could save you from a hefty fine.

Contactless payment will make it easier to travel to London Stansted and London Southend Airports from March 8.

The update applies to some Greater Anglia routes and means that passengers travelling from London Liverpool Street Station to either airport, can tap-in and tap-out on their journey.

In total, across Essex, 20 stations will be added to the contactless network.

Before, passengers were travelling to Stansted Airport using their contactless cards at the start of their journey not realising that you could not use contactless at the end of their journey, at the airport, reports London TravelWatch.

This meant that passengers would need to purchase a ticket instead, to avoid a £100 penalty.

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If they did try to tap-out, they would get an automatic £100 fine, plus the price of a standard single ticket – though the fine would be reduced to £50 if paid within 21 days.

Data released back in 2019 revealed that the number of people fined had risen by over 16,000 in just two years.

At the time, London TravelWatch’s boss Michael Roberts told the Daily Mail: “It’s plainly wrong that passengers continue to be unfairly penalised for not knowing that contactless payment isn’t accepted at London Stansted Airport.

“With ‘London’ in its name, people quite reasonably assume they’ll be able to tap out using a contactless card, especially when they were allowed to tap in using one at the start of their journey.”

Despite the update, passengers will still NOT be able to use their Oyster cards in the stations.

Contactless can sometimes be cheaper than purchasing a ticket.

Your fare will either be based on a peak or off-peak single for each journey you make.

And daily and weekly caps will be applied to journeys into and within London.

The Stansted Express links London Liverpool Street Station with Stansted Airport, taking about 48 minutes.

The trains are usually every 15 minutes, with fares starting from £9.90 per person.

In comparison, the journey from London Liverpool Street to Southend Airport takes about 50 minutes.

Commuters will benefit from the update too, as stops such as Southend Victoria, Witham, Chelmsford, Harlow Town and Bishop’s Stortford have all been added to the contactless payment option.

Greater Anglia’s managing director, Martin Beable, said: “We are pleased to be able to confirm that pay-as-you-go contactless ticketing will be introduced at a further 20 stations from March 8, making travel across our network simpler and more flexible for customers.

“This extension is another important step in modernising ticketing on the railway, allowing passengers to tap in and out and pay for the journeys they make, while improving the overall experience for those travelling into and out of London.”

The update comes as part of a wider programme to simplify fares and ticketing across the rail industry, which both the Department for Transport and Transport for London are working on.

In other rail news, thousands more Brits will get a £126 discount on rail travel as certain rules have been relaxed.

Plus, a miniature railway has unveiled a new electric steam train and it’s right by the best place to live in the UK.

Hundreds of flights departing and arriving in the UK have been cancelled across several airports due to dangerous weather conditions with passengers advised to contact their airlines

Flights departing and arriving at several UK airports have been cancelled due to dangerous weather conditions.

Storm Hernando is causing chaos in the USA and, as a result, hundreds of flights have been cancelled on Monday, February 23.

The weather conditions on the east coast of the USA have already caused thousands of flights to and from the region to be cancelled.

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Flights from London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester Airport, Edinburgh Airport and Dublin Airport have all been impacted by the storm.

The National Weather Service has warned: “A major winter storm is expected to bring heavy snow, strong winds, and coastal flooding across the Mid-Atlantic and north-east that may cause impossible travel conditions and power outages.”

Flights to JFK airport in New York, Newark airport in New Jersey and Boston airport are affected.

A huge 32 flights leaving from London Heathrow to JFK on Monday, February 23 have been cancelled. As well as departing flights, arrivals from the US destination have also been cancelled.

Three direct flights from Manchester have also been impacted. In Scotland, 35 flights that depart from Edinburgh have the second leg of their flight cancelled.

Posting on X, Dublin Airport said: “Due to adverse weather (Storm Hernando) on the east coast of the US, airlines have cancelled a number of flights due to operate to/from Dublin Airport on Monday.”

Dublin Airport said airlines had cancelled seven outbound and six inbound flights so far as a result of the storm.

Passengers have been advised to contact their airlines for the latest updates.