Upcoming mass flight cancellations worry U.S. air travelers

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

With dozens of major U.S. airports reducing their flight volumes starting Friday, travelers will see droves of flights cancelled nationwide for the duration of the ongoing government shutdown.

Forty U.S. airports – including major hubs like Atlanta, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles – will cut flights by 10% due to staffing shortages, the Federal Aviation Administration announced.

The Center Square on Thursday afternoon ran into people concerned about air travel at San Francisco International Airport. Among them was Della Shapen, who was catching a flight Thursday to Denmark with her husband, Kevin, and their dog, Jetta.

“We’re really worried about our friends traveling,” Shapen said. “We’re really fortunate that we’re getting ahead of it.”

Flyers have already experienced thousands of flight delays and dozens of cancellations daily. Air traffic controllers and other federal employees deemed “essential” have been forced to work without pay for over a month, and many are taking off work to find odd jobs.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said flight cancellations will be “based on which controllers are coming to work.”

“We are assessing the risk in airspace,” Duffy posted Thursday on X. “Reducing 10% of flight volume will reduce the pressure on controllers, while prioritizing safety, and getting more flights out on time.”

The planned flight reductions come as controllers miss their second full paycheck Thursday.

Rich Davis, senior security advisor at risk mitigation company International SOS, told The Center Square that increased delays and cancellation will likely persist for some time even after the record-long shutdown ends.

“Even if the shutdown ends tomorrow, normal operations will likely fully resume once air traffic controller performance returns to normal levels, which could take some additional time,” Davis said.

He added that the flight reductions “will primarily impact domestic travel,” but that “it is not guaranteed that international travel will be unaffected.”

The recovery period could pose major problems – even “mass chaos,” as Duffy warned Wednesday – given that the Thanksgiving holiday rush is approaching without a shutdown off-ramp in sight.

Senate Democrats have voted 14 times against Republicans’ House-passed Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded, triggering the current shutdown and extending it for a record period of time.

Despite the nonpartisan nature of the CR – which would merely keep federal agencies funded as lawmakers finish up the regular appropriations process – Democrats oppose it because it does not address the pandemic-era expansion of the Obamacare Premium Tax Credit, expiring Dec. 31.

Republicans have refused to guarantee an extension of the costly enhanced subsidies, resulting in the current 37-day stalemate.

“What the Democrats are doing on the government shutdown is genuinely unprecedented,” Vice President J.D. Vance posted on X Thursday, referencing the upcoming aviation travel delays.

“The shutdown has now passed from farce into tragedy, and the consequences of this national emergency fall on every senator and congressman who refuses to open the government,” he warned.

Airports planning to reduce flights Friday include:

Anchorage InternationalHartsfield-Jackson Atlanta InternationalBoston Logan InternationalBaltimore/Washington InternationalCharlotte Douglas InternationalCincinnati/Northern Kentucky InternationalDallas LoveRonald Reagan Washington NationalDenver InternationalDallas/Fort Worth InternationalDetroit Metropolitan Wayne CountyNewark Liberty InternationalFort Lauderdale/Hollywood InternationalHonolulu InternationalHouston HobbyWashington Dulles InternationalGeorge Bush Houston IntercontinentalIndianapolis InternationalNew York John F Kennedy InternationalLas Vegas McCarran InternationalLos Angeles InternationalNew York LaGuardiaOrlando InternationalChicago MidwayMemphis InternationalMiami InternationalMinneapolis/St Paul InternationalOakland InternationalOntario InternationalChicago O’Hare InternationalPortland InternationalPhiladelphia InternationalPhoenix Sky Harbor InternationalSan Diego InternationalLouisville InternationalSeattle/Tacoma InternationalSan Francisco InternationalSalt Lake City InternationalTeterboroTampa International