Air travelers see long flight delays and cancellations on first day of FAA cuts

Published November 7, 2025 12:47pm ET



Travelers are starting to feel the squeeze of the government shutdown in real time as flights get delayed and canceled on Friday.

The Transportation Department reduced flights across 40 domestic airports on the 38th day of the longest government shutdown in history. On Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the scaled 10% reduction in operations to alleviate stress on air traffic controllers working without pay, with the first 4% reduction taking effect Friday.

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