The Federal Aviation Administration ’s unprecedented order to scale back flights nationwide because of the record-long government shutdown took effect Friday morning, with some passengers trying to figure out backup travel plans.
Airlines scrambled to adjust their schedules and began canceling flights Thursday in anticipation of the FAA’s official order, while travelers with plans for the weekend and beyond waited nervously to learn if their flights would take off as scheduled. Airlines also planned cancellations into the weekend, directing passengers to check apps to learn their flight status.
The 40 airports selected by the FAA span more than two dozen states.
The FAA said the reductions would start at 4% and ramp up to 10% by Nov. 14. They are to be in effect between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. and impact all commercial airlines.
The agency said the cutbacks are necessary to relieve pressure on air traffic controllers who’ve been working without pay for more than a month. Many are pulling six-day work weeks with mandatory overtime, and increasing numbers of them have begun calling out as the financial strain and exhaustion mount.
Here’s the latest:
Trump ends joint appearance with Orban before the news media
The president and Orban spent about 40 minutes making statements and answering questions from U.S. and Hungarian reporters.
Trump spoke a few times about the continuing government shutdown but didn’t mention the airline snarls or what the administration is doing to deliver food aid for the needy.
He instead spoke a lot about why he’s been pressuring Republican senators to change legislative rules so that most bills can pass with a minimum of 51 votes, instead of the 60 votes currently needed.
Trump and Orban are now meeting in private.
Trump brags about Walmart’s Thanksgiving prices
When pressed about rising prices, the president has pointed to the cost of Walmart’s all-inclusive Thanksgiving dinner, which costs less than last year.
There’s one problem with his example — the package includes less than before.
“You’re fake news,” Trump said when a reporter pointed that out. He blamed inflation on former President Joe Biden and said Democrats’ talk about affordability was “a con job.”
“When did I not want to talk about it? I talk about it all the time,” he said.
Trump complained that a reporter had asked about prices in a “fake, disgusting manner,” and he summoned his press secretary to criticize the press more. “You guys refuse to cover it,” Karoline Leavitt said.
Thune expects to keep Senate in session over weekend
The Senate majority leaders says he’s taking the step as lawmakers struggle to end the country’s longest government shutdown ever.
He voiced frustration that negotiation appeared to have stumbled Thursday.
“They were trending in that direction. And then, yesterday, everything kind of, the wheels came off,” he said.
The Senate has been scheduled to be out next week. He was asked about the optics of that as Americans deal with flight cancellations and other ramifications of the shutdown.
“We’ll see what happens over the course of the next couple of days, but I would expect that we’re going to be here for the weekend,” Thune said.
Thune says ‘the time to act is now’ to end the shutdown
The Senate majority leader pleaded with his colleagues to “end these weeks of misery” as many Democrats have said they will continue to vote against reopening the government until Trump and Republican leaders negotiate with them on an extension of health care benefits.
A small group of Democrats has been negotiating with Republicans on a deal that would end the shutdown with only an agreement for a future health care vote, instead of a guarantee that expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies would be expended.
While most Senate Democrats wouldn’t support that, Republicans only need five additional votes to fund the government.
“The time to act is now,” Thune said in his opening remarks on the Senate floor Friday.
The cancellations at major airlines so far
Major airports across the country braced for cancellations on Friday as the result of the air traffic controller shortage created by the federal shutdown.
All 10 airports with the most cancellations had pulled approximately 3% to 4% of all departing flights.Here are the airports with the most cancellations as of noon ET on Friday:
— Chicago O’Hare International Airport: 40 cancelled flights
— Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport: 39 cancelled flights
— Denver International Airport: 32 cancelled flights
— Los Angeles International Airport: 28 cancelled flights
— Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport: 27 cancelled flights
— San Francisco International Airport, 24 cancelled flights
— Newark Liberty International Airport: 23 cancelled flights
Trump says he’s considering sanctions exemption for Hungary
“We’re looking at it,” he said during a meeting with Orbán.
Hungary wants to avoid U.S. sanctions for purchasing Russian oil, saying it would be too hard to import energy from other sources because his country is landlocked.Orbán said it’s a “vital” issue.
Trump pardons baseball star Darryl Strawberry
The president pardoned the former eight-time All-Star outfielder, whom the White House said “served time and paid back taxes” after pleading guilty to tax evasion.
A White House official speaking on background to detail a pardon that hasn’t yet been disclosed publicly, described the slugger as using his post-career time to find “faith in Christianity” and remain sober for a decade. The official said Strawberry also became active in ministry and started a recovery center that remains operational today.
Strawberry won the World Series with the New York Mets in 1986 and with the New York Yankees in 1996, 1998 and 1999.
Delta completes weekend cuts to flights
Delta Air Lines says it has completed all the cuts it plans to make for Friday, Saturday and Sunday to comply with the FAA order.
Customers have been notified if their flight is canceled and they have been automatically rebooked on the next best option. Refunds are available for anyone who does not want to travel.
Delta directed questions about how many flights have been canceled to the FlightAware numbers since these cuts are affecting the entire industry. FlightAware shows 851 cancellations Friday and 670 on Saturday and 274 on Sunday so far. By comparison, 202 flights were canceled Thursday.
Consumer sentiment tumbles close to record lows in latest survey
Consumer sentiment dropped to a three-year low and close to the lowest point ever recorded by the University of Michigan one month into the government shutdown, with pessimism over personal finances and anticipated business conditions weighing on Americans.
The November survey showed the index of consumer sentiment at 50.4, down a startling 6.2% from last month and it plunged nearly 30% from a year ago.
Economists were caught off guard. Those polled had expected a slight month-to-month increase for a reading of 54.2.
Trump says “very good chance” he’ll meet Putin in Budapest
The president’s original plan to sit down with the Russian leader has been put off indefinitely.
But when Orbán arrived at the White House, Trump briefly answered a reporter’s question about revisiting the idea.“There’s always a chance,” Trump said. “Very good chance.”
Sherrill to federal government: Run SNAP or return New Jersey’s money
New Jersey Democratic Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill said her state contributes billions of more dollars to the federal government than it gets back every year and called on the Trump administration to use funds it has available to run the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
“I’m starting with demanding that the federal government A, either run the program it should be running or B return that money,” Sherrill said.
She attended a pop up food pantry Friday in Newark. It was her first visit since the election to the state’s largest city, which contributed significantly to her overwhelming victory in Tuesday’s election.
People in line for the items, which included rolls, cheese and boxes of cereal among other things, said they’re struggling to make ends meet without SNAP help.
Cornell University announces deal with Trump administration to restore funding
Cornell University has agreed to pay $60 million and accept the Trump administration’s interpretation of civil rights laws in order to restore federal funding and end investigations into the Ivy League school.
Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff announced the agreement on Friday, saying it upholds the university’s academic freedom while restoring more than $250 million in research funding that the government withheld amid investigations into alleged civil rights violations.
The university agreed to pay $30 million directly to the U.S. government along with another $30 million toward research that will support U.S. farmers.
Southwest Airlines says it cut about 120 flights on Friday
And it anticipates cutting fewer than 100 on Saturday to comply with the order to cut 4% of its flights at 34 of the 117 airports it serves.
Southwest said the “vast majority of our customers’ flights will not be disrupted,” and the airline will notify travelers who are affected as soon as possible.
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees. We continue to urge Congress to immediately resolve its impasse and restore the National Airspace System to its full capacity,” Southwest said in a statement.
‘So I’m not hearing of chaos,’ airline analyst says
Airline industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, who’s president of Atmosphere Research Group, said Friday that even though the total number of flights canceled nationwide is large, the impact at each airport is generally pretty small and spread out throughout the day.
“The airlines are doing their level best to minimize inconvenience and to avoid canceling too many flights at any one time in order to obviously get people where they want to go,” Harteveldt said. “They want to make sure that they have some flexibility.”
“So I’m not hearing of chaos,” he said. “There’s certainly anxiety. There’s uncertainty. There’s stress. And look, if your flight has been canceled, it’s very disruptive for you. I don’t want to minimize the impact.”
But even if the airlines have been able to manage these initial cuts without significant impact, Harteveldt said the impact will grow next week as the airlines work their way up to cutting 10% of their flights by next Friday.
United, American airlines say they were able to rebook most travelers affected by flight cuts so far
United spokesperson Josh Freed said more than 80% of the people affected by the cuts have been rebooked with the vast majority of those scheduled to reach their destinations within four hours of their original plan.
“We’ve had a lot of success rebooking people is the bottom line,” Freed said.
The airlines focused the cuts on smaller regional flights to airports where they have multiple flights a day. That helped minimize the number of passengers affected and limited the disruptions to the airlines’ plan to position planes and crews in their hubs for the next flight.
American offered examples of some of the cuts it made. Flights from Dallas to San Antonio were cut from 11 a day to 10. Flights from Dallas to northwest Arkansas went from 10 to 8 a day. Boston to Reagan National went from 10 flights to 9.
Court wrangling prolonged weeks of uncertainty for the food program
The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans, mostly with lower incomes.
Thursday’s federal court order came in a lawsuit from cities and nonprofits challenging the Trump administration’s decision to cover only 65% of the maximum monthly benefit, a decision that could have left some recipients getting nothing for this month.
In its court filing Friday, Trump’s administration contended that Thursday’s directive to fund full SNAP benefits runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
“This unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. Courts hold neither the power to appropriate nor the power to spend,” the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in its request to the court.
Trump administration seeks to halt SNAP food aid payments after a court order
President Trump’s administration asked a federal appeals court Friday to block a judge’s order that it distribute November’s full monthly SNAP benefits amid a U.S. government shutdown, even as at least some states said they were moving quickly to get the money to people.
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. had given Trump’s administration until Friday to make the payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But Trump’s administration asked the appeals court to suspend any court orders requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund.
The court filing came even as Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback said on Friday that some SNAP recipients in the state already had received their full November payments overnight on Thursday.
▶ Read more about the government shutdown and food aid
Democrats consider prolonging shutdown as Republicans prepare new bills without health care fix
Republican senators are trying to end the government shutdown by preparing a bipartisan package of spending bills they hope will win new Democratic votes. It’s unclear whether their plan will work.
Democrats have voted 14 times not to reopen the government as they demand an extension of expiring health care subsidies, which aren’t expected to be part of the legislation. Many said Thursday they would continue to hold out until President Trump and Republican leaders negotiate with them on an extension.
“That’s what leaders do,” said Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. “You have the gavel, you have the majority, you have to bring people together.”
A test vote on the new package, which hasn’t been made public, could come as soon as Friday.
▶ Read more about the government shutdown
Trump is ramping up a new effort to convince a skeptical public he can fix affordability worries
President Donald Trump is adjusting his messaging strategy to win over voters who are worried about the cost of living with plans to emphasize new tax breaks and show progress on fighting inflation.
The messaging is centered around affordability, and the push comes after inflation emerged as a major vulnerability for Trump and Republicans in Tuesday’s elections, in which voters overwhelmingly said the economy was their biggest concern.
Democrats took advantage of concerns about affordability to run up huge margins in the New Jersey and Virginia governor races, flipping what had been a strength for Trump in the 2024 presidential election into a vulnerability going into next year’s midterm elections.
▶ Read more about Trump’s efforts on affordability
Air Force One cleared for takeoff
Hundreds of flights are being canceled because of the government shutdown, but the president isn’t grounded. He’s expected to jet down to Florida’s Palm Beach today to spend the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, his private resort.
Travelers shift travel plans with delays rising at US airports
In the scramble to find alternatives to flying, Hertz is reporting a sharp increase in one-way car rentals. One-way reservations have spiked more that 20% through this weekend compared with the same period last year.
Hertz CEO Gil West urged Congress to restore certainty for travelers, saying “Every day of delay creates unnecessary disruption.”
Shutdown blocks jobs report but hiring likely weak
There was no jobs report Friday morning for the second month in a row because of the government shutdown, denying Wall Street analysts, economists and everyday Americans closely-watched figures such as the unemployment rate and the number of jobs gained or lost in October.
Still, a raft of alternative data from mostly private-sector companies suggest job gains remained weak last month. Payroll processor ADP said earlier this week that just 42,000 jobs were added in October, a small gain after two months of declines. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimates the unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.4% from 4.3% when it was last reported in August.
For those out of work, sluggish hiring has resulted in longer spells of unemployment, an unusual trend outside recessions.
▶ Read more about the “no hire” job market
Has this happened before?
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said this week that he’s never seen these kinds of measures taken before in his nearly four-decade experience in the aviation field.
“We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns,” he said.
Staffing problems led to delays throughout October, but they were mostly isolated and temporary. Last weekend, though, saw a change.
From Friday to Sunday evening, at least 39 air traffic control facilities reported potential staffing limits, according to an Associated Press analysis of operations plans shared through the Air Traffic Control System Command Center system. The figure, which is likely an undercount, is well above the average for weekends before the shutdown.
Which airports are affected?
The 40 airports selected by the FAA for reductions span more than two dozen states and include hubs such as Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami and Newark, according to an order published by the agency Thursday evening. A full list of affected airports can be found here.
Tips for passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled during the shutdown can be found here.
Airlines said they would try to minimize impact on customers
Some planned to focus on slashing routes to and from small and medium-size cities.
Carriers are required to refund customers whose flights are canceled but not to cover secondary costs such as food and hotel accommodations unless a delay or cancellation results from a contributing factor that is within the control of the airlines, according to the Department of Transportation.
Industry analyst Henry Harteveldt warned that the reductions will “have a noticeable impact across the U.S. air transportation system.”
More than 815 flights have been called off nationwide, according to FlightAware
Delta Air Lines said it would scratch roughly 170 flights Friday, and American Airlines planned to cut 220 a day through Monday.
The FAA said the reductions would start at 4% and ramp up to 10% by Nov. 14.
By The Associated Press
