MW Here's how many flights at major U.S. airports are on the chopping block with looming FAA cuts due to shutdown

By Claudia Assis

FAA to release the names of airports affected on Thursday. United Airlines said international and hub-to-hub flights won't be affected.

Travelers at Chicago's O'Hare airport in December. An aviation analytics company found that about 1,800 flights would be scrapped if shutdown-related systemwide cuts are implemented on Friday.

An aviation analytics company has done a little bit of math after news that the U.S. will cut flight capacity by 10% at 40 of the nation's airports on Friday if the shutdown continues.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy broke the news at a press briefing late Wednesday, saying that the administration will release the names of the airports impacted on Thursday and that it was acting to keep air travel safe.

It is "very rough math," the company, Cirium, said Wednesday through a spokesperson. Long-haul flights on widebody jets, for example, have many more seats than regional flights on smaller aircraft.

Still, the exercise paints a picture of increased pain for air travelers a mere three weeks from Thanksgiving week, consistently the busiest for air travel and travel in general.

All told, the announced cuts could mean as many as 1,800 flights scrapped on Friday, and a loss of more than 268,000 seats scheduled to fly that day, Cirium said.

It noted that, like the rest of the nation, it is still waiting to hear from the FAA which airports will be impacted, and how the 10% cuts would be accomplished - whether they would affect international or only domestic flights, for instance.

Shares of airlines were losing ground, but weren't being hit too hard.

United Airlines Holdings Inc. said its long-haul international flights, and hub-to-hub flights in the U.S. would not be affected, and its $(UAL)$ stock slipped 0.8% in premarket trading on Friday. American Airlines Group Inc. shares $(AAL)$ were down 1%, after the carrier said it expects "the vast majority" of its customers' flights won't be affected. Delta Air Lines Inc.'s stock $(DAL)$ eased 0.3%.

A 10% cut at the nation's busiest airport by departures, Chicago's O'Hare, would mean the loss of about 121 flights and about 14,500 seats on Friday, Cirium said.

The second-busiest, Atlanta's Hartfield-Jackson airport, would see 104 fewer flights, and 17,100 seats gone. Dallas-Forth Worth's airport would lose 96 flights, and Denver's 95. The fifth-busiest by departures, Los Angeles's airport, would see 72 fewer flights accounting for more than 12,000 seats.

Airports in Charlotte, N.C., Phoenix and Houston would lose more than 60 flights on Friday. Airports losing about 50 to 60 flights on Friday would include the three New York City area airports, Newark, JFK and LaGuardia.

Air-traffic controllers missed their first paycheck last week and received only a partial paycheck in mid-October. They and airport screeners are among the federal workers classified as essential and expected to work through the shutdown.

They may increasingly be calling out of work, however. "Staffing triggers," indicating a shortage of controllers, have been driving some flight cancellations and delays in recent days, in addition to the more usual halts triggered by bad weather or construction at U.S. airports.

Staffing triggers are expected to increase throughout the rest of the week as paychecks remain held up.

The shutdown is already the longest on record, eclipsing the 2018-'19 shutdown, which lasted 35 days. A ground stop to and from New York City's LaGuardia airport in January 2019 was one of the key moments leading to that shutdown's end.

The shutdown began Oct. 1 mostly because President Donald Trump and his Republicans were in a standoff with Democratic lawmakers over including an extension for Obamacare subsidies in a bill to fund the federal government through Nov. 21.

-Claudia Assis

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 06, 2025 06:36 ET (11:36 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.