The ongoing shutdown of the United States government is threatening the timely launch of A220-100 operations at Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson), tentatively scheduled for January 31, 2019, Flightglobal has reported.

The shutdown caused by a budgetary dispute between President Donald Trump and Congress affects the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has yet to authorise Delta to operate the new type.

The FAA issued a type certificate for the A220, then still known as Bombardier Aerospace CSeries, in 2016. However, prior to the induction of the type into the operations specifications of any carrier, the agency has to perform a number of tests, including a physical check of an aircraft. As the agency currently remains unfunded, it performs only the bare minimum of essential tasks and lacks resources to conduct the checks.

Delta said in a statement that it still expects a timely launch of the type's operations on January 31, 2019. It will be the first Northern American operator of the A220.

According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Delta plans to debut the A220-100 on services from New York La Guardia to Boston and Dallas/Fort Worth.