The 10% air traffic cuts that were supposed to roll out at 40 airports across the country on Friday have been grounded. Instead, the affected airports will remain at 6%.
The flight restrictions had been put into place last week to compensate for staffing issues during the 43-day government shutdown, which officially ended with President Donald Trump’s signature on Wednesday night, The Associated Press reported.
Air traffic controllers were still required to work during the nearly month-and-a-half-long shutdown but were not paid, missing two paychecks. Controllers were calling off work because of stress or needing to have a second job to make ends meet, while they were not being paid.
Flight cuts were supposed to go up to 8% on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Airports will continue with the 6% limit until air traffic control can resume normal operations, but as of Wednesday, Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy did not give a firm timeline.
“If the FAA safety team determines the trend lines are moving in the right direction, we’ll put forward a path to resume normal operations,” he said in a statement, according to the AP.
Delta anticipates being at full capacity “over the next few days,” the company said.
Southwest also said it should be back to normal in a few days, Reuters reported.
As of Thursday morning, FlightAware said there were 626 delays within, into or out of the U.S. and 992 cancellations.
At Orlando International Airport, reports of 38 flights cancelled over the last 24 hours as well as an 8% dip in flight activity compared to the same week back in 2023.
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