*

CEO concerned over security officers shortage during

shutdown

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Delta's joint venture with Aeromexico faces antitrust

scrutiny

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No resolution timeline for Delta's Aeromexico joint

venture

issue

(Adds context and quotes throughout)

By Federico Maccioni

RIYADH, Oct 27 (Reuters) -

Delta Air Lines ( DAL ) is seeing a "small" impact from the

U.S. government shutdown, costing it less than $1 million a day,

and the shortage of airport security staff is of greater

concern, the carrier's CEO said on Monday.

"The more obvious concern is TSA (Transportation Security

Administration) and ensuring that those checkpoints are staffed

accordingly," Delta CEO Ed Bastian told Reuters on the sidelines

of the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh.

There is also a shortage of air traffic controllers in the

United States. Some 13,000 air traffic controllers and about

50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must work

without pay during the government shutdown. Controllers will

miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday.

"Air traffic control is something in the U.S. that is

understaffed to begin with. So it's hard to sometimes identify

what is attributable to the shutdown versus just understaffing

in general," Bastian said.

Delta is locked in a dispute with the U.S. government over its

nearly nine-year-old joint venture with Aeromexico, which the

U.S. Department of Transportation has ordered must end on

January 1, as part of several actions aimed at Mexican aviation,

citing competition concerns.

"We believe that the dissolution of our joint venture,

particularly because of (Antitrust Immunity) is not the right

strategy and something that we have to ensure that we protect

our interests here for the long term," Bastian said, adding that

he sees no timeline for a resolution of the issue.

"We've been in conversation (with the administration) for a

long time," he said.

The joint venture allows the two carriers to coordinate

scheduling, pricing and capacity for U.S.-Mexico flights.