Up To 3,400 Daily Flights To Be Cancelled Amidst US Record Shutdown

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered a 10% reduction in flight capacity at 40 major airports across the country. The agency says that the drastic measure is required to ensure resilience in the national airline system and keep the nation’s airspace safe during the record US government shutdown, which has now entered its 37th day.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced at a press conference on Wednesday that the restrictions will go into effect on Friday morning. Sources told ABC News that the flight reductions will start at 4% on Friday and work up to 10% by next week. But what impact will this have on the busiest airports in the US? Let’s take a closer look.

More Than 3,400 Daily Flights Could Be Canceled

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Every day, the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) provides service to more than 44,000 flights and over 3 million airline passengers across nearly 30 million square miles of airspace. The ongoing government shutdown has been taking a growing toll on the 14,000 ATC controllers responsible for this job, who are required to work without pay until it ends. Even before the shutdown, the system was more than 3,000 certified controllers short and under severe strain.

Bedford says that the agency wants to reduce the pressure at the nation’s largest airports before safety is compromised:

“We just can’t ignore it. We’re not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators are telling us we can take action today to prevent things from deteriorating.”

The FAA has subsequently released the list of 40 airports that can expect cuts, which includes all the major commercial airline hubs, large cargo operations such as Memphis International Airport and Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, and even Teterboro, the busiest private jet airport in the US. All told, the cuts could lead to the cancellation of more than 3,400 daily flights by next week.

Where Will The Cuts Impact Passengers Most?

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Taking a look at Cirium data for the upcoming week, the 40 airports on the FAA list are projected to have more than 34,000 daily movements in total, or an average of 874 per airport. However, that figure is skewed significantly towards the nation’s largest airports, with the top 10 accounting for nearly half of the number of daily movements at just under 16,000.

If we apply a flat 10% reduction in flights at each airport, it would mean every one of the top 10 airports stands to lose more than 100 daily flights. Most impacted will be Chicago O’Hare International Airport, the busiest US airport when measured by flights, which stands to lose 234 daily flights. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world’s busiest airport by daily passengers, and while it would lose slightly fewer flights than ORD, it will see the largest reduction in available seats.

However, it is worth noting that these are rough estimates based on a flat 10% reduction at each airport. But the numbers are very unlikely to be as neat as that. The FAA could still make changes to its list of 40 airports, and/or mandate different levels of reductions at different airports. Additionally, United Airlines has gone on record to say that it doesn’t expect any impact on long-haul international or hub-to-hub flights.

The Wall Street Journal also reports that airports in Chicago, Nashville and the New York area have been most affected by ATC staffing issues during the shutdown, and could be required to trim their schedules more than other airports. As a result, ORD could be more severely impacted than stated here, and an airport like Newark Liberty International Airport that has had ATC challenges all year could rise up the list.

Could ATC Controllers Help End The Shutdown?

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Air traffic controllers have historically played a pivotal, albeit indirect, role in resolving government shutdowns by highlighting the real-world consequences of prolonged funding lapses through operational disruptions. During the 2018-2019 shutdown, which lasted 35 days, staffing shortages at key facilities in Virginia and Florida led to a spike in sick calls among unpaid controllers, causing major delays across East Coast airports.

This culminated in a ground stop at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on January 25, 2019, triggering widespread chaos with major delays in the tri-state area due to the absence of controllers who were not getting paid. That same day, then-President Trump agreed to a temporary funding bill, effectively ending the impasse.

While the National Air Traffic Controllers Association denied any coordinated action, emphasizing that even a few individual sick calls could have outsized impacts on the system, the timing suggested that aviation disruptions pressured political leaders to act. Today, with controllers again voicing concerns about reaching a “tipping point,” history may repeat as mounting absences and safety-driven reductions underscore the unsustainability of unpaid work in such a high-stakes field.