Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made a stunning announcement Wednesday: a mandatory 10% cut in flights across 40 major U.S. airports. The decision comes as air traffic control safety concerns mount during a government shutdown that’s now reached its record 36th day. Airlines are scrambling to pull off significant reductions in just 36 hours, and passengers have been flooding airline customer service hotlines with urgent concerns about their air travel plans for the coming days.
This drastic plan represents something we’ve never seen before. The shutdown has dragged on longer than any in U.S. history, and it’s forced 13,000 air traffic controllers along with 50,000 Transportation Security Administration agents to keep working without pay. The Trump administration has clearly sought to ramp up pressure on Democrats to end the shutdown. They’ve been increasingly raising the specter of dramatic aviation disruptions to force Congress to vote and reopen government. Meanwhile, Democrats contend that Republicans share the blame for refusing to negotiate over key health care subsidies. Duffy has indicated the cuts might be reversed if Democrats agreed to reopen operations and get the government functioning again.
Here’s what’s really happening on the ground. Tens of thousands of flights have already been delayed since this shutdown began, creating widespread air traffic control shortages across the country. Airlines report that at least 3.2 million travelers have been impacted by these shortages. That’s not a small number—that’s millions of people whose plans got derailed.
Duffy opened up to reporters about what he called a gut check moment regarding their core job responsibility. He stressed they need to make sure they’re willing to make the hard decisions necessary to continue doing what matters most: keep our airspace safe. He was citing what he described as a confidential safety assessment that looked at the impact this shutdown is having on controllers. That assessment raises serious concerns about their performance levels after working this long without getting paid.
Reuters actually reported this plan before the official announcement came out. During a call with executives from major U.S. carriers, the FAA laid out how these capacity reductions would roll out at affected airports. They’d start small at 4%, then go rising to 5% come Saturday, hit 6% by Sunday, before finally hitting 10% sometime next week. Multiple industry sources confirmed these details to Reuters. One bit of relief: the FAA has plans to exempt international flights from these cuts, though pressures keep building steadily across all 40 markets. Officials say they simply can’t ignore what’s developing.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford didn’t mince words at a press conference earlier this week. He explained why they have to take action today rather than wait—they need to prevent things from deteriorating further. His goal? Make sure the system stays extremely safe today and remains extremely safe tomorrow. While the government wouldn’t officially name which 40 airports get affected, people familiar with the situation expected these cuts would hit the 30 busiest airports. That includes facilities serving New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Dallas.
We’re talking about serious numbers here. This could reduce as many as 1,800 flights from schedules and eliminate over 268,000 airline seats. Those figures come according to the aviation analytics firm Cirium, which tracks this data closely. Government officials were careful to note that nothing stays final until the FAA actually published its official order, which should happen Thursday.
The whole move is really aimed at taking pressure off air traffic controllers who’ve been pushed to their limits. Right now, the FAA sits roughly about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of their targeted staffing levels. Even worse, many of them were already working mandatory overtime and pulling six-day weeks long before this shutdown ever started. You can imagine how exhausted they must be now.
The FAA has warned airlines it could potentially add more flight restrictions starting after Friday if further air traffic issues happen to emerge. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby quickly outlined his carrier’s strategy for handling these flight reductions. He’s been assuring both staff members and customers that long-haul international routes and hub-to-hub operations will definitely remain unchanged. Instead, the cuts will specifically target regional flying and non-hub domestic routes, Kirby emphasized in his message. He’s also implementing a generous flexible refund policy, telling employees that literally any customer traveling during this difficult period becomes eligible for a full refund if they don’t wish to fly—even when their specific flight isn’t impacted.
American Airlines quickly echoed this similar sentiment. They’re indicating that most of their customers should see minimal disruption to their travel plans. Over at Southwest, the largest domestic carrier in America, executives said they’re actively evaluating how these mandated cuts will affect their schedule. They promised to communicate directly with customers as soon as they finalize the details. The airline also urged lawmakers on Capitol Hill to immediately resolve this ongoing impasse over government funding.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA represents 55,000 flight attendants working at 20 airlines nationwide. They’ve called this shutdown nothing short of a cruel form of attack on all Americans. Union President Sara Nelson spoke bluntly, saying the false narrative painting this shutdown as some kind of choice between either paying federal workers or protecting affordable healthcare is completely outrageous. She pointed out that both of these crises were essentially manufactured by the exact same people who have the power to fix everything.
The federal government remains mostly closed while Republicans and Democrats stay firmly locked in an intense standoff happening in Congress right now. It’s all over a funding bill neither side will budge on. Democrats have insisted they absolutely would not approve any plan that doesn’t extend health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans. Republicans, for their part, have flatly rejected that position. President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans have clearly been trying hard to intensify the pressure on Democrats by deliberately increasing the pain that average Americans are feeling from this ongoing government shutdown.
This closure officially began back on October 1, and it’s already left countless many low-income Americans without food assistance they desperately need. It’s closed down many government services people rely on daily and led directly to the furlough of roughly about 750,000 federal employees. Back on Tuesday, Duffy issued a stark warning: if this federal government shutdown somehow continued for another week, it very well could lead the country into absolute mass chaos. He suggested it might even force his hand to close some portions of national airspace to regular air traffic entirely.
Airlines operating nationwide have repeatedly urged political leaders to find an end to this mess, constantly citing growing aviation safety risks nobody can ignore much longer. Shares of major airlines, including both United and American, fell by about 1% during extended trading sessions after the news broke. Most airlines have publicly said the shutdown still hasn’t significantly affected their core business operations yet, but they’ve definitely warned that bookings will likely drop sharply if this situation drags on much longer.
On Wednesday alone, more than 2,100 flights got delayed across the country. Tuesday brought more troubling news when Bedford revealed that somewhere between 20% and a staggering 40% of controllers working at the agency’s 30 largest airports were actually failing to show up for work. Can you blame them? Duffy added that the authorities have decided they’ll also need to limit space launches to only certain approved times of the day. They’re additionally expected to impose restrictions on general aviation flights to ease the burden on overworked controllers.
