FAA airport shutdown live updates: Nation’s biggest travel hubs brace for impacts from 10 percent cut in flights

In line with the federal directive, American Airlines has said it will reduce its schedules by 4 percent across 40 airports, amounting to around 220 flights canceled each day from Friday through Monday.

The vast majority of these cancellations are for regional flights, allowing the airline to maintain approximately 6,000 daily flights and minimize customer impact, it said.

Delta Air Lines announced the cancellation of about 170 U.S. flights on Friday, with fewer expected on Saturday due to lower travel volume. The carrier normally operates 5,000 daily flights globally.

United Airlines said it plans to cut 4 percent of its flights Friday through Sunday, resulting in less than 200 daily cancellations. The Chicago-based airline operates around 4,500 flights a day. Southwest Airlines will cancel about 120 flights on Friday.

Alaska Airlines has begun canceling a limited number of flights from Friday. The carrier said that most cancellations would affect high-frequency routes, allowing the majority of customers to be re-accommodated with minimal disruption.

Discount carrier Frontier said most of its flights would operate as planned, though in a LinkedIn post its CEO Barry Biffle advised customers traveling to funerals or other critical events over the next 10 days to book backup tickets on different airlines.

This was the scene in Texas yesterday as the problems first began to become apparent.

Here’s Kelly Rissman on what passengers can do if they find themselves caught up in the anticipated chaos this weekend.

At his press conference Wednesday, Secretary Duffy said the decision to slash schedules was paramount for safe air travel amid pressure on air traffic controllers, who “are under immense stress and fatigue.”

He said the decision “had not been taken lightly” ahead of the busy Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday travel season and named the FAA’s “Core 30” airports that are likely to be hardest hit by flight cancellations, which are listed below:

• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Intl (ATL)
• Boston Logan Intl (BOS)
• Baltimore/Washington Intl (BWI)
• Charlotte Douglas Intl (CLT)
• Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA)
• Denver Intl (DEN)
• Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (DFW)
• Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW)
• Newark Liberty Intl (EWR)
• Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Intl (FLL)
• Honolulu Intl (HNL)
• Washington Dulles Intl (IAD)
• George Bush Houston Intercontinental (IAH)
• New York John F Kennedy Intl (JFK)
• Las Vegas McCarran Intl (LAS)
• Los Angeles Intl (LAX)
• New York LaGuardia (LGA)
• Orlando Intl (MCO)
• Chicago Midway (MDW)
• Memphis Intl (MEM)
• Miami Intl (MIA)
• Minneapolis/St Paul Intl (MSP)
• Chicago O`Hare Intl (ORD)
• Philadelphia Intl (PHL)
• Phoenix Sky Harbor Intl (PHX)
• San Diego Intl (SAN)
• Seattle/Tacoma Intl (SEA)
• San Francisco Intl (SFO)
• Salt Lake City Intl (SLC)
• Tampa Intl (TPA)

Here’s Sean Duffy’s announcement Wednesday about the cutbacks, which he had warned were coming without a resolution to the government shutdown being forged by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The deadlock became the longest in U.S. history earlier this week and is now into its 38th day, surpassing the 35-dayer in 2018/2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Airports across the U.S. are bracing for chaos as cuts to flight schedules made by the Federal Aviation Administration come into effect amid the ongoing government shutdown, now the longest in American history.

By late Thursday over 800 flights within and in and out of the U.S. had already been canceled for Friday according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.com.

Around 200 flights were canceled Thursday as airports and passengers prepared to bear the brunt of the measures.

It comes after Transport Secretary Sean Duffy and the FAA announced that 40 of the country’s busiest airports across two dozen states, including New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago, would be phasing in a 10 percent reduction in their flight schedules.

The disruptions will affect service at many smaller airports too and some travelers had already started changing or canceling their itineraries.

Here’s Mike Bedigan and Rhian Lubin to set the scene.

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Friday’s expected travel chaos across major U.S. airports after the Trump administration ordered 10 percent reductions in flights from major airports due to a shortage of air traffic controllers caused by the ongoing government shutdown.