{"id":4215,"date":"2025-11-07T07:52:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T07:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/the-faa-is-set-to-start-cutting-flights-to-contend-with-delays-and-staffing-shortages\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T07:52:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T07:52:49","slug":"the-faa-is-set-to-start-cutting-flights-to-contend-with-delays-and-staffing-shortages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/the-faa-is-set-to-start-cutting-flights-to-contend-with-delays-and-staffing-shortages\/","title":{"rendered":"The FAA is set to start cutting flights to contend with delays and staffing shortages"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Federal Aviation Administration will begin cutting the number of flights in the “high traffic” parts of the country as the government shutdown grinds on<\/a> and local airports have reported staffing shortages<\/a>, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is going to be a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations,\u201d Duffy said. \u201cThis is about where\u2019s the pressure and how do we alleviate the pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the reduction in capacity, spurred by \u201cfatigue\u201d plaguing air traffic controllers, would start Friday. <\/p>\n

The list of markets impacted will be released Thursday, he said.<\/p>\n

Airlines were told by Department of Transportation officials Wednesday night that flight cuts would start at 4% Friday, 5% Saturday and ramp up to 10% next week, two airline sources told NBC News, confirming a report from Reuters<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News Thursday morning that passengers should expect “significant” delays due to air traffic controllers going without pay and being unable to work.<\/p>\n

“So I think you\u2019re going to have more significant disruptions in the airspace, and as we come into Thanksgiving if we are still in the shutdown posture, it\u2019s going to be rough out there, really rough and we\u2019ll mitigate the safety side,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But, will you fly on time? Will your flight actually go? That is yet to be seen, but there will be more disruption,” he added.<\/p>\n

Duffy and Bedford highlighted the building pressure and fatigue weighing on air traffic controllers, who have been working without pay because of the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do recognize that the controllers have been working fastidiously for the last five weeks with this huge burden over their head of lack of compensation, and we are starting to see some evidence that that fatigue is building in the system,\u201d Bedford said. <\/p>\n

Bedford said the agency is not waiting for the situation to get worse. \u201cWe just can\u2019t ignore it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He said additional measures may be taken if the pressures continue. <\/p>\n

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The development comes as the shutdown has entered its second month and in the wake of a weekend during which dozens of American airports reported hundreds of delays.<\/p>\n

More than 5,000 flights traveling from and to U.S. airports were delayed on Sunday alone, and the Transportation Security Administration<\/a> said it screened nearly 2.7 million people around the country. <\/p>\n

And on Monday evening, there were 2,885 delays on flights traveling within, to and out of U.S. airports and 70 more were canceled, according to FlightAware.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Hardest hit were travelers flying in and out of Chicago O\u2019Hare International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, with more than 900 delays and 35 cancellations between them.<\/p>\n

The number of cancellations doubled to 148 <\/strong>Tuesday, while the number of delays dipped somewhat to 2,133, the website reported. There were over 2,100 delays as of Wednesday evening and 164 cancellations among flights within, into, or out of the U.S., according to FlightAware. The website does not provide the reason for the delays. <\/p>\n

The shutdown has meant that essential workers, including air traffic controllers<\/a>, have been working without pay. That has led to a shortage of anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 controllers<\/a>, Duffy has previously said.<\/p>\n

Duffy acknowledged that some air traffic controllers have taken to side gigs to make ends meet as they’ve gone a month without pay.<\/p>\n

“What we’re finding is that our air traffic controllers, because of the financial pressures at home, are taking side jobs,” Duffy said. “By the way, I do not want them to take side jobs. I want them to show up for work. We have asked them to show up for work, but I\u2019m not naive to understand that they\u2019re trying to figure out how they meet their daily obligations.”<\/p>\n

Asked if the reduced traffic would continue if the shutdown hypothetically ended tomorrow, Bedford said: “I think what we\u2019re going to want to see is a return to controller performance that\u2019s at levels that we were experiencing prior to the shutdown.”<\/p>\n

Aviation officials will meet with the airline community Wednesday evening \u201cabout how we\u2019ll move to implementation,” Bedford said. <\/p>\n

“We want to do this in an organized way,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

United Airlines\u2019 CEO Scott Kirby said the schedule reduction will impact regional flights and domestic mainline flights that do not travel between United hubs. Long-haul international flights and hub-to-hub flights won\u2019t be impacted, in part to \u201csustain our crew pairing systems,\u201d he said in a letter to employees Wednesday.<\/p>\n

He noted that customers traveling during this period are eligible for a refund if they do not wish to fly, even if their flight isn\u2019t impacted due to the schedule reduction. Still, even with the cuts, United and United Express partners will still see about 4,000 flights per day, he said. <\/p>\n

American Airlines said in a statement that it expects \u201cthe vast majority of our customers\u2019 travel will be unaffected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Airlines for America, a trade association and lobbying group, said Wednesday it\u2019s working with the federal government to \u201cunderstand all details of the new reduction mandate\u201d and will try to \u201cmitigate impacts to passengers and shippers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federal Aviation Administration will begin cutting the number of flights in the “high traffic” parts of the country as the government shutdown grinds on and local airports have reported staffing shortages, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday. \u201cThere is going to be a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 of our locations,\u201d Duffy said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}