Around 996 flights were canceled and 906 were delayed as of Thursday morning at 11:00 a.m. ET, according to a tracking website.
More than 1,800 flights were either delayed or canceled going into, within, or out of the United States on Thursday, coming hours after the government shutdown was ended, according to a flight-tracking service.
Around 996 flights were canceled and 906 were delayed as of Thursday morning at 11:00 a.m. EST, according to FlightAware.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening signed into law a congressional package to reopen the government until Jan. 30, 2026, which ended a more than one-month government shutdown. Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed restrictions on flights due to safety reasons, primarily because of a shortfall in air traffic controllers.
Impacts of the shutdown on airports and flights are not expected to entirely go away, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy previously saying that it will take days for services to return to normal.
Flight reductions at 40 major U.S. airports will remain at 6 percent instead of rising to 10 percent by the end of the week because more air traffic controllers are coming to work, officials said Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Trump warned in a post on Truth Social that air traffic controllers should return to work or potentially face financial penalties, adding that he would be recommending a $10,000 bonus for those who stayed on the job throughout the shutdown.
“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,” Duffy said in a statement on Nov. 12.
The FAA’s list of 40 airports spans more than two dozen states and includes large hubs such as New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The order requires all commercial airlines to make cuts at those airports.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement that the cuts were due to safety concerns, adding that “data shows that controller staffing is improving rapidly, which allows us to hold flight reductions at six percent while maintaining the highest levels of safety in our airspace.”
“We’ll continue to monitor system performance hour by hour,” he added, “and we won’t hesitate to make further adjustments if needed.”
