The airline industry hasn't taken a big hit due to the government shutdown but some aircraft deliveries have faced delays. Both JetBlue and US Airways have had delivery delays from Airbus.
Other aircraft producer, Boeing, hasn't had any delivery disruptions yet, but it could change if the shutdown continues for a while.
"We haven't seen anything, but it's too soon," David Cush, CEO of Virgin America Airlines told Forbes. "My expectation is that if this goes on another week, we will start seeing an impact - (not so much) from government travel, but from suppliers and people like that, as suppliers start to go slowly." Delta CEO Richard Anderson also said there hasn't been a disruption.
However JetBlue and US Airways are seeing delays. Earlier this week, both airlines sent employees to Europe to celebrate the aircraft deliveries from Airbus but most of the employees had to fly home on scheduled flights instead of on the new aircrafts. About 30 JetBlue employees went to Germany pick up the A321 which is supposed to start flying in December. Another 30 US Airways employees flew to France to pick up an A330 and fly it to Charlotte. Both groups are headed home, without a new plane.
According to Airbus spokesman Clay McConnell, airplanes can't fly into the U.S. before being registered in the U.S. but planes can't be registered yet as the Federal Aviation Administration's registration personnel have been furloughed. "We're trying to help the airlines figure this out," McConnell said. "Aircraft have to have an in number."
Boeing has worked out an agreement with the FAA to work around the issue.
"Boeing is an FAA organization designation authorization (ODA) holder and has been granted delegated authority to perform some of its own certification work on behalf of the FAA.," the statement continued. However, "because some FAA employees retain certification duties for some of our products, deliveries of airplanes with new configurations or those delivered from Boeing South Carolina could be delayed during the shutdown. Also, certification of some our development programs could potentially be slowed or delayed."
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