The Government Shutdown Is Finally Over, But Flight Disruptions Will Continue

The longest government shutdown in American history has officially ended.

congress finally approved the funding bill Wednesday night, effectively putting an end to the government shutdown on its 42nd day.

The lockdown dealt a blow to daily life, with every worker on the government payroll furloughed or forced to work hard with no pay in sight. One of the most disrupted industries was air travel, where already overburdened and understaffed air traffic controllers were taking sick days to make time for additional income streams.

Nearly 3,000 flights were canceled and 11,229 delayed within, within or outside the United States on Sunday, according to FlightAware data. Officials said these numbers amount to the impact of a light snow storm.

Cancellations peaked in response to FAA-mandated flight reductions across 40 major airports that began at 4% on Friday, and increased to 6% on Tuesday. The flight reductions were issued as a measure to combat the real safety threat caused by a shortage of air traffic controllers in some of the busiest airspaces across the country. If an agreement is not reached, the percentage of cancellations was supposed to gradually rise to 10% on Friday, and Transport Minister Sean Duffy had warned of future cuts of up to 20%.

You would think that with the lockdown over, the flight discounts would disappear too. But this is not the case.

The Department of Transportation will maintain flight reductions as long as the threat to safe air travel continues.

“We will wait to see the data from our side before we remove travel restrictions,” Duffy said in a press conference on Tuesday.

The decision to maintain the cuts will depend largely on how quickly air traffic controllers who are still working return to work. Last week, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Brian Bedford said as many as 20 to 40% of controllers at the 30 largest airports were not showing up for work.

But things are looking up. “Today is a good sign,” Duffy said Tuesday.

Air traffic controllers will be paid 70% of their back pay for missed paychecks within 24 to 48 hours of the government reopening. The remaining 30% will arrive in about a week, Duffy said.

The increase in air traffic controller numbers could also be helped by a Truth Social post that President Donald Trump made on Monday night, hinting at the possibility of offering $10,000 bonuses to air traffic controllers who worked during the shutdown without pay. It is not certain whether a reward of this level will actually be awarded.

But even removing the flight reduction mandate will not be enough to ease the pressure on air travel. Experts say that travelers’ suffering will continue even after flight cuts are completely lifted. With just two weeks left until Thanksgiving, which is set to spark the busy holiday travel season, the air travel industry is bracing for the worst.

The American Airlines Group said in a statement on Wednesday: “We are preparing for record travel on Thanksgiving, with about 31 million passengers expected, and the busy cargo season is approaching.” “However, airlines cannot change the situation and resume normal operations immediately after the vote, and there will be residual effects for several days.”

Flights operate on a tight schedule, carefully designed to take into account not only traffic in the air, but also where the crew and aircraft will be on the next flight. So one cancellation can disrupt many other flights, turning into a scheduling nightmare that may take a few days to resolve.

Worse still, the closure would have exacerbated the country’s existing shortage of air traffic controllers.

The shutdown came at a bad time, when the Federal Aviation Administration was already facing a severe shortage of air traffic controllers, and American air travel was rocked by horrific incidents, such as the fatal crash between a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet in Washington, D.C., earlier this year.

The Department of Transportation is working to combat this, having made an effort to modernize the air traffic control system and increase the number of air traffic controller staff. But the closure is likely to be a setback for the ministry on its way to achieving this goal.

At Tuesday’s news conference, Duffy said that while four air traffic controllers were retiring each day before the shutdown, that number has now grown to approximately 15 to 20.

“Long after we finish covering the shutdown, we’re going to be stuck dealing with this problem,” Duffy said. “We’re short about 2,000 consoles, and we’re trying to make up that difference.”