Nearly 1,500 flights and counting have been canceled across the U.S. It’s the result of the FAA ordering airlines to cut flights to address a shortage of air traffic controllers amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Flight cancellations
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the Trump administration would be cutting 10% of flights at 40 “high-impact” airports around the country.
Data from FlightAware shows the most canceled flights were at Reagan National in Washington, D.C., with 75 flights, or 16%, leaving Reagan canceled, while 81 flights, or 18%, arriving were canceled.
“We are expecting significant delays and cancellations through this evening due to air traffic reductions,” the airport posted on X. “Customers with flight reservations are urged to monitor their flight status closely with their airline.”
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Chicago O’Hare International and Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta followed that.
SkyWest and Southwest had the most flights canceled among airlines.
Duffy said this could be just the beginning, and even more flights will be canceled if the record-breaking shutdown continues.
He also talked about safety issues.
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Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport flew 108,067,766 total passengers in 2024.
“So, a few points that we look at that are sending us in the wrong direction, right?” Duffy said. “So number one, loss of separation in the airspace. So that’s the minimum distance we keep between aircraft to keep them safe. We’ve seen breaches, more breaches, in regard to that loss of separation. We see more incursions on tarmacs throughout the country. And we have more complaints from pilots about stress from air traffic controllers, and more complaints about the lack of responsiveness from controllers.”
The number of flight delays has gone up as well, to more than 5,000 as of Friday evening.
Turning to plan B
With all the cancellations and delays, people are turning to other means of transportation.
Many are turning to car rentals. Hertz reported a 20% increase in one-way bookings for the weekend compared to the same time last year.
Others have even turned to U-Haul.
“I’m going to U-Haul and I’m going to drive a truck cross-country,” Karen Soika, who is trying to get from New Jersey to Utah, told CBS News.
Holiday season
This all comes ahead of one of the busiest travel times of the year.
“As we come into Thanksgiving, if we’re still in the shutdown posture, it’s going to be rough out there, really rough,” Duffy said.
More than 3 million people flew on the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year, setting a new record.
Even if the shutdown were to end today, Duffy said it’s still going to impact holiday travel.
“So if the government opens on Day 1, will I see an immediate response from controllers? No, the union is telling me it’s going to take time to get them all back in,” Duffy said.
