FAA to cut flights at 40 cities starting Friday

Add in some winter weather wrinkles and anyone who has not thought of "Plan B" will probably regret not doing so.

Good luck travelers

I have been reading about this. I did not see what markets. Forty major markets is a lot of markets. I am glad that I do not have any plans to travel in the near future.

It will be interesting to see how and which markets are chosen.

Will it be based on number of flights and call outs? Or will it be politically biased where airports in cities run by a different party than the one in Washington getting hit the most?

Either way, I hope by the time I return to the US in early January, all this nonsense will be over.

"The government did not specify which airports would be affected. However, according to the news agency Reuters, it is expected that the busiest airports in the USA will be affected, including those in New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas.

According to calculations by the analysis company Cirium, this could result in the loss of up to 1,800 flights and more than 268,000 seats per day." (source)

It appears that the airlines are either making their own choices or are providing guidance to the FAA. Here's what United Airlines' CEO sent out today (I'm scheduled to fly on Monday from SEA to IAH to SCL on United, so I'm watching what happens with United...other airlines will be making their own plans):

United team:

Earlier today, the FAA and DOT directed every airline to reduce their
schedules during the government shutdown, across 40 domestic airports.

The FAA's goal is to relieve pressure on the aviation system so that
we can all continue to operate safely. That is the FAA's highest
priority, and ours as well. No matter what environment we're operating
in, we will not compromise on safety.

These reductions will start on Friday, November 7, and we will
continue to make rolling updates to our schedule as the government
shutdown continues so we can give our customers several days' advance
notice and to minimize disruption for them and for all of you.

United's long-haul international flying and our hub-to-hub flying will
not be impacted by this schedule reduction direction from the FAA.
That's important to maintain the integrity of our network, give
impacted customers as many options as possible to resume their trip,
and sustain our crew pairing systems.

Instead, we will focus our schedule reductions on regional flying and
domestic mainline flights that do not travel between our hubs.

We'll use our app, website and push notifications to communicate to
customers directly if their flight changes, and to offer rebooking
options. We want to provide them with as much information as we can
and in a way that's simple and easy to understand.

And importantly, any customer traveling during this period is eligible
for a refund if they do not wish to fly – even if their flight isn't
impacted. That includes non-refundable tickets and those customers
with basic economy tickets.

Even with these schedule reductions, United and its United Express
partners will still offer about 4,000 flights per day to fly our
customers to their destinations. And because of the early November
timing, our flights have more seats available than before the summer,
meaning we should be able to find seats for many customers even if
their flight is canceled.

Finally, thank you for going above and beyond during this government
shutdown to take care of our customers and one another. Your
professionalism and care will be more important than ever in the days
ahead.

Note that this airline is trying to maintain their hub-to-hub, and longhaul international flights, while cutting back on "regional flying and domestic mainline flights that do not travel between our hubs. Me, I'm flying from Seattle, a very minor hub (it's a stretch to call SEA a United hub) to Houston (a huge United hub!) then off to South America. So if United's plan holds, it should not wreck our plans. We shall see.

(ETA: No, Seattle is not even a minor hub for United, just an outstation at the end of the line. That said, United currently says my flights are on time, so I'll will hope that sticks.)

Good luck out there.

Here's the list

Anchorage International
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International
Boston Logan International
Baltimore/Washington International
Charlotte Douglas International
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International
Dallas Love
Ronald Reagan Washington National
Denver International
Dallas/Fort Worth International
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County
Newark Liberty International
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International
Honolulu International
Houston Hobby
Washington Dulles International
George Bush Houston Intercontinental
Indianapolis International
New York John F Kennedy International
Las Vegas McCarran International
Los Angeles International
New York LaGuardia
Orlando International
Chicago Midway
Memphis International
Miami International
Minneapolis/St Paul International
Oakland International
Ontario International
Chicago O'Hare International
Portland International
Philadelphia International
Phoenix Sky Harbor International
San Diego International
Louisville International
Seattle/Tacoma Internationa
San Francisco International
Salt Lake City International
Teterboro
Tampa International
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15263819/FAA-airports-thousands-flights-canceled-daily.html

Naturally I have a flight scheduled on Friday…….
It does leave from one of the impacted airports but is due to arrive at Paine Field instead of SeaTac. Maybe that will help keep it going. So far, no notifications about changing

Thanks for finding the list of airports. I hadn't been able to find it yet. We're flying on the 8th and 10th, both ends of the trip are on the list unfortunately. Its not an important trip for us, just a fun weekend. But with both ends of the trip being affected we can plan for a higher likelihood of adventure.
Kevin

Thanks for the information all. I’ll alert my granddaughter who is flying Friday, SFO to BOS, both airports on the list. It’s better to be prepared although I don’t think she’ll have other options if her red eye flight is cancelled.

Sean Duffy: "As we come into Thanksgiving, if we're still in a shutdown posture, it's gonna be rough out there. Really rough." -- 8:26 am

I'm flying from ATL to Portland ME tomorrow morning. I've got my fingers crossed - hopefully the fact that I'm flying from a hub and my flight is in 24 hours means I won't have any issues getting up there. I've got my heart set on a lobster roll in Freeport on my way to Belfast.

I'm flying home next Thursday and hope I won't have any issues getting home either, but if worse comes to worse, I'll just stay and my husband and dog will make the drive to come get me.

David in Seattle, that is a lot more information than was included in American’s letter.

Due to the prolonged government shutdown, the FAA has directed all airlines, including American, to reduce flight schedules at certain airports starting Friday, Nov. 7.

While we are awaiting additional information from the FAA to determine
which flights will be impacted, we expect the vast majority of our
customers’ travel will be unaffected. Still, customers are traveling
for many reasons — all of them important — and disrupting plans is the
last thing we want. For that, we apologize.

There is no need for customers to take any action. Any customer whose
flight is impacted will be proactively notified by American Airlines.
We will do our best to notify customers as early as possible. As
always, we encourage all customers to check their flight status via
the American Airlines mobile app or aa.com, which will provide
real-time updates.

We remain grateful to the air traffic controllers, TSA officers, CBP
officers and other federal employees who are working right now without
pay — all to get our customers where they need to be safely — as well
as our American Airlines team members who always work to take the best
care of our customers.

I am scheduled to fly domestically tomorrow and transit through DFW. I guess we’ll see what happens.

United is allowing passengers to get a refund, even if the ticket is nonrefundable. My son who was having serious doubts about flying this weekend (he had surgery on his foot not too long ago and is not fully mobile) is taking advantage of this.

Well, I am flying regional to two hubs on Tuesday that are on the list. My final leg out of a hub is on a regional. When I go to my reservation on the United app, I find that I have no upcoming flights. What a “ you know what” show.

I just checked in for tomorrow’s flight from one of the impacted airports. So far, so good….,

My flight is still 2 weeks out. A long time in shutdown-drama land. I have booked a fully refundable Plan B ticket on a hub to hub United flight.

I'm very glad I have more than a week between my domestic flight and my international flight, to get to my international departure city. Worst case, I have enough time to drive to Denver!

I'm very glad I have more than a week between my domestic flight and my international flight, to get to my international departure city. Worst case, I have enough time to drive to Denver!

Amtrak from Emeryville to Denver?

Alaska has a "flexible travel policy in place". Theres a banner at the top of the app home page. Looks like theyre offering refunds on any ticket purchased before the 6th for travel betweeen the 7th and 10th.

"We are offering a flexible travel policy if you would like to change or cancel your flight. Flights may be delayed or canceled. Please monitor your flight status regularly"

Kevin

Amtrak from Emeryville to Denver?

Fun option! It's me and the dog, who will stay with Mom and Dad in Denver while I go to Christmas Markets in Munich and Vienna. So my other option is to drive! It's about 3 days, unless there's snow in the mountains, in which case I'll take my chances with TSA lines.

I prefer Amtrak from OAK to Denver,...no problem at all but better when it is not snowing.

My parents have taken Amtrak in the other direction and got switched onto a bus when there was too much snow for the train. That wasn't fun.

Amtrak won't take the dog for that length of trip without breaks. So driving is my fallback.

shane and his bus will be leaving soon... webmaster will punch his ticket

FYI Delta has updated it's schedule for today and tomorrow with all planned cancellations. (Luckily for me my flight home from Austin tomorrow was not impacted)

Spammer three posts above with scammy link reported.

Update from someone actually flying from one of the target airports today (Nov 7). Everything is operating smoothly here in Phoenix for most passengers. TSA precheck security checkpoint less than 5 minutes. The regular line next to us was a little longer but not by much. Most flights are operating. While some flights are cancelled, I think there is no reason to panic if you have a flight scheduled soon.

Good to know Carol.

It looks like only 3 to 4% were actually cancelled today. It is apparently going to be a ramp up to 10%. Also folks on CNBC business are reporting rumors/speculating there may be movement soon on the shutdown. Mini-stock rally/ improvement from the day's decline on the speculation. The general consensus among the talking-heads is that will not be allowed to continued much longer.

I hope so! I have flights coming up!

Happy travels.

I didn't see Cleveland on the list ;-)

I didn't see Cleveland on the list ;-)

Clearly discrimination of the worst kind! Are we chopped liver or what?

(Chicago is the connection in my case!)

Happy travels.

Well, Frank did say "40".

And Cleveland lands at 47 on the list of rankings*.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_the_United_States

(*curious where Portland was)

In Austin, we re having the Texas Book Festival this weekend, a really great event

I received this email earlier today:

"Dear friends,

Please be aware that some authors, who were previously announced, can no longer participate in the 2025 Texas Book Festival due to unforeseen circumstances, including ongoing flight challenges. "

My flight update so far is a flight change where I get home hours later. I don’t usually fly from Denver to my city but usually into LA and hubby drives through two hours of traffic. I found a good fare out of my local airport and skipped returning into LA. Flights from LA home were cx., as were flights out of San Francisco. Seems like I’m not ok for now.

For those flying on United (or in some cases, now not flying on United), the airline has posted a web page listing all (?) the flights they're planning to cancel for the next three days. The page is here: United Airlines: FAA-mandated airline schedule reductions

They're updating this page on a rolling basis - it now includes the list for Saturday, Sunday...and Monday.

(I have flights scheduled on Monday from SEA to IAH and then onward to Chile, so I've been watching for details on Monday's flights...happily for us, so far our flights appear to have survived.)

If you have flights on United, it's worth checking for updates once you get within the three-day window.

Granddaughter’s redeye flight tonight has boarded, just an hour and a half late but she is on her way, SFO to BOS.

For those flying in the near future be aware that this Friday( 7th) was a 4% reduction; it ramps up to the full 10% by next Friday (14th)

The FAA's plan requires airlines to phase in these cuts gradually, starting with 4% of flights through the weekend and gradually building up to 10% by next Friday
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/07/nx-s1-5601894/air-travel-airports-flights-faa-reductions-what-to-know

Sadly it looks like a 'slippery slope' to purgatory.

Boiling frogs.