FAA flight cuts are carving into major airports

FAA flight cuts are carving into major airports

U.S. airlines started canceling hundreds of flights Thursday after the FAA ordered traffic reductions at the country's busiest airports due to the government shutdown, and more than 500 Friday flights were already cut before Friday even arrived. The order covers 40 of the busiest airports, with airlines phasing in a 10% reduction across high-volume markets. The pain isn't staying tidy: affected airports include major hubs and popular destinations like Atlanta, Denver, Orlando, Miami, and San Francisco, and multiple airports in Dallas, Houston, and Chicago are all in the mix. Delta planned to cancel roughly 170 flights Friday, United had called off 145, and American had canceled 32.

Gobble's Take: Delta, United, American — name a carrier, lose a flight. The FAA just turned Friday into a group project nobody signed up for. Source: PBS NewsHour

The mess will outlast the shutdown

Even if the shutdown ends soon, aviation experts say relief won't be immediate. Controllers are fatigued. Airline schedules are scrambled. Crew and aircraft are out of position. By Sunday, around 10 percent of all flights were canceled and 30 percent were delayed by more than 30 minutes, according to Cirium — and some airports were hit far harder: at Newark and La Guardia, a third of flights were canceled and nearly half were delayed. By Monday morning, cancellations sat at 5.5 percent and still climbing, with more than 4,000 U.S. flights delayed by midday. The lesson is simple and irritating: the shutdown ending won't mean the airport chaos does.

Gobble's Take: The shutdown may clock out, but your flight crew will still be in the wrong city. Normalcy has a connection through Newark, and it's delayed. Source: New York Magazine

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

• FAA cuts have turned a shutdown into a traveler pain generator
• New York-area flyers are getting the longest waits