Kevin Smith says traveling by plane for work was hell during the government shutdown … and it sounds like his flight issues have him supporting Harvey Levin‘s ‘OWTA’ campaign.

We got the legendary director at LAX on Monday and our photog asked him what it was like flying during the shutdown … and he told us he was basically stranded in Atlanta and couldn’t get to New Jersey or even Orlando by plane.

Kevin says he feels for air traffic controllers who have been working for several weeks without a paycheck and tells us he totally understands why some of them stopped showing up for work … even if it meant lengthy delays for some of his own flights.

Harvey’s been banging the drum to vote out members of Congress who let the shutdown reach historic levels … and it sounds like Kevin is on board with “Out With Their Asses.”