The record-setting 43-day government shutdown interrupted many Philly services \u2013 including airport operations and park access. Here\u2019s what we can expect moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parks<\/p>\n
With the government open again, the Liberty Bell will reopen at noon on Thursday, November 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Independence Hall and its West Wing \u2013 which contains original printed copies of The Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution \u2013 will remain closed until early next year. Park employees say this is due to renovations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The National Park Service (NPS) manages Independence Hall National Park, and the NPS is overseen by the Interior Department, which released guidance at the start of the shutdown saying that areas that required staffing (like visitor centers and park sites) would remain closed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Independence Hall National Park hosts millions of visitors each year, with over 2.7 million visitors recorded in 2024. Over 250,000 visitors went to the landmark in October of 2024. While Independence Visitor Center and Carpenters\u2019 Hall remained open during the shutdown, no visitors were permitted inside the Liberty Bell or Independence Hall this October due to the shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Operations at other parks throughout the state will vary. Parks such as Valley Forge National Historical Park remained closed during the shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the NPS Contingency Plan, furloughed employees are \u201cexpected to return to regular duty on the next workday immediately after the end of the lapse in appropriations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Air Travel<\/p>\n
Philadelphia International Airport travellers have experienced disruptions \u2013 including flight cancellations and delays \u2013 throughout the course of the shutdown. The changes came as the Federal Aviation Administration mandated last week<\/a> that flights be cut up to 10% at high-volume airports. Flight reductions will currently remain at 6% instead of the projected 10%, according to a statement<\/a> from FAA officials on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officials worked without pay for over 40 days during the shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n A TSA union representative speaking with Billy Penn<\/a> during the fourth week of the shutdown emphasized that \u201cmorale is low\u201d and that some workers were struggling to cover basic needs \u2013 such as childcare and gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Federal Aviation Administration was already facing an air traffic controller shortage <\/a>before the shutdown. Some experts suggest the shutdown will lead to some air traffic controllers permanently leaving their positions, exacerbating the shortage.\u00a0<\/p>\n The lingering impact of these challenges<\/a> is expected to continue to impact air travel. According to multiple news outlets,<\/a> flights may continue to be delayed or cancelled, and workers may not return to work right away.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite threats from the Trump administration<\/a> throughout the shutdown to withhold backpay, the funding deal that opened up the government guaranteed retroactive pay for furloughed employees. According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management,<\/a> employees should receive retroactive pay \u201cas soon as possible after the lapse ends.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The record-setting 43-day government shutdown interrupted many Philly services \u2013 including airport operations and park access. Here\u2019s what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[60,564,98,555,69,71,1013,70,20829,16618,50,2155],"class_list":["post-33143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-business","tag-featured","tag-independence-national-historical-park","tag-liberty-bell","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-international-airport","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly-tourism","tag-phl","tag-politics","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}