With flight cancellations, delays across the nation, how are things in South MS?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- South MS’s airport has logged only nine flight cancellations since Friday amid shutdown.
- Airport controllers and TSA staff continue reporting for duty despite missed pay.
- Local operations avoided major disruptions, but travelers should monitor flight schedules.
Passengers flying through the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport have faced flight cancellations only nine times since Friday, even though flights have been curtailed since Friday at the nation’s largest airport because of the government shutdown.
Fewer air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officers are showing up for duty while going without pay, national news reports indicate, but that’s not the case at South Mississippi’s airport.
Air traffic controllers and TSA officers at the airport in Gulfport have all been showing up for duty, said Clay Williams, the airport’s executive director. Williams said the airport has 25 air traffic controllers and about 60 TSA officers. They’ve missed two paychecks, he said.
“We can’t express deep enough gratitude,” Williams said. “They’ve kept us running. We want to thank them for showing up throughout this shutdown. They’ve been committed and diligent.”
Williams said flight cancellations at major airports can have “a ripple effect,” so people with tickets should check their airlines for any potential issues with their flights. The Gulfport airport, he said, averages 16 flights a day.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered 40 high-traffic airports to cut 4% of flights to maintain safety during the shutdown, with the number expected to ramp up to 10% by Friday.
An end to the shutdown, which Congress is considering, will not fix staffing shortages for air traffic controllers. The workforce of 14,000 is 3,000 short of full staffing, national reports say.
For the most part, passengers traveling through Gulfport-Biloxi weren’t feeling the pain.
Airline passengers describe smooth flights
Paige Kellie of Gulfport had just flown home Wednesday morning from a visit with relatives in Michigan. She flew back from Grand Rapids, with a layover in Atlanta. She said her travel experience was calm and relaxing, even though she is afraid of heights.
Three men arriving in Gulfport for work said they came from different locations but none of them experienced delays or cancellations.
Charlotte Stallings was headed home to Sarasota, Florida, after spending her 60th birthday with friends at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi. She said that she was supposed to return home Monday. After passengers boarded, she said, they were escorted off the plane because of mechanical problems.
Several delays prompted Stallings to change her return flight to Wednesday because she didn’t want to spend the day in the airport. She said that she was the only person in her group of 25 — including friends from Texas, Colorado and multiple places in Florida — whose flight plans were interrupted.
She said that she arrived at the airport early Wednesday because she was expecting the worst. But there were no long lines and her morning went smoothly.
“Everything was just fine,” she said.
This story was originally published November 12, 2025 at 2:01 PM.
