Trump's shutdown forces FAA to halt flights into New York's Laguardia Airport

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday announced that it was halting incoming flights to New York's Laguardia Airport due to staff shortages caused by President Donald Trump's government shutdown, reports CNBC.

According to the FAA, there are currently not enough air traffic control officers available to work to ensure that flights at the airport can land safely.

Writing on Twitter, Yahoo News reporter Ethan Klapper explains that this stoppage of inbound flights is not surprising given that "there have been a number of seemingly inexplicable delays/ground stops since the shutdown started."

However, he also believes that the FAA is now trying to send President Donald Trump a message about the infeasibilty of keeping the federal government shut down.

"What's impactful about what happened with LGA just now is the fact that the FAA command center, which is staffed by both union (NATCA) and FAA managers, coded the ground stop as staffing-related," he writes. "That's a big deal and designed to send a message."

The cancellation of inbound flights to one of America's biggest airports is the biggest consequence so far resulting from the shutdown.

Roughly 800,000 federal government employees have now gone more than a month without being paid, which has forced many of them to seek alternative employment to make supplemental cash and even to get food by going to local food pantries.