Travelers face mounting delays as flights canceled nationwide due to shutdown

Airlines canceled at least 945 flights early Saturday as the longest government shutdown in history continued. 

Charlotte Douglas International Airport had the most canceled flights, with 41 trips being cut, data from the flight tracking site FlightAware showed. Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport had the next-highest level of cuts, with 39 flights canceled. 

More than 1,000 flights were called off nationwide Friday due to airlines complying with the government shutdown, according to FlightAware. 

There have been at least three apparent close calls at major airports during the government shutdown.

In one of those incidents, which occurred on Oct. 31, American Airlines Flight 4 to New York and ITA 621, an Italian airliner, took off from Los Angeles International Airport on parallel runways just seconds apart, and their takeoffs were caught on video.

Within a minute, ITA 621 had drifted to the left, dangerously close to the American Airlines flight.

Air traffic controllers, working without pay since the onset of the shutdown, intervened.

“American 4 just stop your climb,” an air traffic controller said, according to audio recorded by LiveATC.net.

“621 heavy, you should have been runway heading there, is there a reason you turned to the south?” an air traffic controller asked the pilots of ITA 621.

The FAA is now investigating this apparent close call.

“We’ve seen breaches, more breaches in regard to that loss of separation,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters Friday. “We’ve seen more incursions on tarmacs throughout the country. And we have had more complaints from pilots about stress from air traffic controllers, and more complaints about the lack of responsiveness from controllers.”

More than 1,000 flights were called off nationwide Friday due to airlines complying with the government shutdown, according to FlightAware. 

Data from the flight-tracking software showed Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., had the most cancellations – losing 75 flights, followed by O’Hare Airport in Chicago, which saw 48 flights canceled. Atlanta and Denver rounded out the top four airports, losing 42 and 35 flights, respectively.

On Thursday, just over 600 flights were canceled. 

Those who showed up before sunrise Friday at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport faced security lines that barely moved, prompting some people to lie down while they waited.

“It was snaking around all different parts of the regular area,” Cara Bergeron said after flying from Houston to Atlanta. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Others were less fortunate.

Karen Soika from Greenwich, Connecticut, found her flight out of Newark, New Jersey, was rebooked for an hour earlier. Then she learned her plane was actually leaving from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, at least an hour away.

Soika, a surgeon, unsuccessfully tried to book a rental car to get to Utah for a weekend trip before settling on an option that seemed straight out of Hollywood.

“I’m going to U-Haul and I’m going to drive a truck cross-country,” said Soika, who is advising on medical scenes there for a TV show.

Hertz reported a sharp increase in one-way car rentals.

More than 93% of flights were departing on time as of early Friday afternoon, as airlines cut schedules to comply with an FAA directive to slow flight traffic, according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company.

All major U.S. carriers maintained on-time departure rates above 90% as of 1 p.m. EST Friday. Cancellations within, into, or out of the U.S. were moderate, totaling 974 as of 4:30 EST, according to data from flight-tracking website FlightAware.

A bad weather event or another significant disruption would typically trigger a higher level of cancellations.

David Seymour, the chief operating officer of American Airlines, told CBS News he appreciates the FAA taking action when the agency saw signs of stress on the national airspace system.

“Everything we do at American is about safety, and so we are going to abide by the orders that they have given us,” Seymour told CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave. “They’ve seen the data, we haven’t seen. But it’s important that when you see those, the data, that you act on it.”

Seymour said he didn’t have any concerns about the safety of the system.

“I believe we’re within the parameters that we need to,” he said. “I think this adds some margin.”

A woman flying out of Houston on Friday said she came to the airport about four hours early to make sure she got to her destination.

“I normally get here about two hours earlier, but due to everything that was going on, I just figured to get here about four hours earlier,” Brianna Davison told CBS affiliate KHOU-TV.

In Philadelphia, a woman named Destiny hoped the government’s actions wouldn’t last long.

She told CBS News Philadelphia, “I’m praying that they get this together because this is horrible.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the government’s flight cuts could increase to 20% of flights at 40 airports if the shutdown continues to drag on.

“If this shutdown doesn’t end relatively soon, the consequence of that is going to be more controllers don’t come to work, and then we’re going to have to continue to assess the pressure in the airspace and make decisions that may again move us from 10% to 15%, maybe to 20,” Duffy said on Fox News on Friday afternoon. “I don’t want to see that.”

The FAA’s order currently ramps up to cutting 10% of flights at 40 “high traffic” airports by next Friday.

Duffy also said the flight cuts could decrease if more air traffic controllers can work.

Around 12,000 customers on American Airlines had their flights canceled Friday, the carrier said. American canceled about 220 flights for the first day under the FAA order.

American told CBS News in a statement that most of the affected customers were “rebooked and reaccommodated.”

With Friday’s flight cuts, nearly 650,000 customers were still expected to fly on the carrier, which planned to operate about 6,000 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, 670 on Saturday and 274 on Sunday so far. By comparison, 202 flights were canceled Thursday.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., that there were multiple concerns that led to the flight cuts at 40 U.S. airports.

One of those concerns was “more breaches” of the minimum distance kept between planes in the air so they can fly safely, he said. There have also been more tarmac incursions around the country, Duffy added.

Pilots have also filed complaints that reported stressed or less responsive air traffic controllers, Duffy said. He did not provide specific numbers about the complaints, the incursions or the airspace breaches. 

“That data is going in the wrong direction, not the right direction, which made us make the decision we have,” he said. 

More than 840 flights around the U.S. had been canceled as of 11:35 a.m. EST, according to tracking service FlightAware, as airlines complied with a Federal Aviation Administration plan to reduce air traffic at 40 major airports because of the ongoing government shutdown.

Those cancellations amount to roughly 3% of the 25,375 trips scheduled to depart on Friday.

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport had the highest number of scrapped flights, with 80 cancellations. It was followed by Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, where 38 flights were cut; Denver International Airport (35); Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (32); and Los Angeles’ LAX (27).

American Airlines trimmed the most flights of any carrier on Friday, at 221, or less than 4% of its planned schedule on Friday, data from Cirium Aviation Analytics shows. United Airlines canceled 184 flights; Delta Airlines, 173; and Southwest Airlines, 73.

Flights were also starting to bog down at a number of airports around the country, with nearly 1,500 delays within, into or out of the U.S., according to FlightAware.

More than 30 flights from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were canceled on Friday. Another nine flights from Love Field Airport were also canceled. 

In the previous three days, just four flights were canceled from the North Texas airports. 

Read more here.

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.

While addressing the media at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said allowing the Federal Aviation Administration to gradually cut its daily flights was “the safest way” to move forward. 

Currently, airlines are required to cut their flights by 4%, with that number gradually scaling up until it reaches 10% on Nov. 14, assuming the shutdown continues. Duffy said that the decision came after meeting with FAA safety officials.

Duffy said that reducing the number of daily flights could lead to similar results to those seen at Newark Airport over the summer, when similar actions were taken because of ongoing delays and cancellations.  

Duffy said he could not comment on the exact number of flights that could be canceled by next Friday. He said he hoped the situation could be avoided. 

“I don’t want to see the disruption. I don’t want to see the delays,” he said.

A long line was seen at a security checkpoint at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Friday morning. Airport officials urged people to plan extra time for going through checkpoints, saying wait times may last longer than 45-60 minutes because of the government shutdown’s effect on security operations.

Nearly 100 flights were canceled at Chicago airports on Friday morning. As of 8 a.m. CST, 80 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport and 18 flights were canceled at Midway International Airport.

Read more here.

By Asal Rezaei and Elyssa Kaufman

Over two dozen flights were canceled at Philadelphia International Airport on Friday morning. As of 8 a.m. EST, there were 26 flight cancellations and 17 delays at PHL. Delays nearly doubled over half an hour from 6 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.

Read more here.

There were 38 cancellations in and out of Boston’s Logan International Airport as of 8 a.m. EST and that number was expected to rise. Smaller airports are also affected. According to T.F. Green International Airport in Rhode Island, five flights in and out of Providence were canceled Friday morning.

Read more here.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said “my No. 1 job is safety” as flight cancellations ordered by the FAA began at major airports across the U.S. due to the government shutdown.

“As we were looking at data, we were seeing increased numbers in some of the categories we don’t like,” Duffy said Friday on “CBS Mornings.” He said some air traffic controllers have been working 10-hour days, six days a week, as staffers go without pay and callouts increase.

“That pressure on the controllers was giving us numbers that were not troubling, but were concerning. So my job is to be preemptive – to take preemptive action based on the data, which is what we’ve done,” he said.

When asked about sharing the data, Duffy said it will be provided to airlines and Congress at a later time, “but right now it’s about making the right decisions at the right time to keep people safe.”

“As that data came in we decided to make the decisions we thought were appropriate,” Duffy said.

Read more here.

United Airlines says it’s published a list of all its mandated flight cancellations though Sunday on a special page on its website. The carrier points out that its app also has updates.

United said Friday morning that about half of its impacted customers have been able to be rebook within four hours of their original departure time.

As the 6 a.m. EST start of the flight cutbacks neared, cancellations and delays were already beginning to pile up.

According to tracking website FlightAware.com, as of 4:25 a.m., 815 flights had been canceled within, into or out of the U.S. for Friday., and 504 had been delayed.

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.

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.

Many airline scrapped fees for people wanting to alter their plans.   

Industry analyst Henry Harteveldt warned that the reductions will “have a noticeable impact across the U.S. air transportation system.”

Nearly a quarter of flights arrived late into 16 of America’s busiest airports in the week after air traffic controllers missed their first paycheck on Oct. 28, according to a CBS News analysis of data from aviation company Cirium. That’s compared with 18% of flights arriving late in September. 

Fifteen of those airports are included on the list of airports that will be affected by the 10% cut in air traffic.  

Delays were more significant in some areas than others. Staffing shortages and weather conditions compounded delays in New York City last week. From Oct. 28 to Monday, fewer than 65% of flights arrived on time into the area’s three airports. More than 81% of flights landed on time at the airports in September.  

Seattle and Denver’s airports, on the other hand, have had more flights arrive and depart on time over the same timeframe than in September. 

Read more here.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said this week that he has never seen these kinds of measures taken before in his nearly four-decade experience in the aviation field.

“I’m not aware in my 35-year history in the aviation market where we’ve had a situation where we’re taking these kinds of measures,” Bedford said Wednesday. “Then again, we’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns.”

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.

During weekends from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, the average number of airport towers, regional control centers and facilities monitoring traffic at higher altitudes that announced potential staffing issues was 8.3, according to the AP analysis.

“We are seeing signs of stress in the system, so we are proactively reducing the number of flights to make sure the American people continue to fly safely,” Bedford said in a statement Thursday. “The FAA will continue to closely monitor operations, and we will not hesitate to take further action to make sure air travel remains safe.”

The FAA’s plan to slash airline capacity includes cutting flights at 40 “high traffic airports” around the country. 

The list of airports, confirmed Thursday night by the Department of Transportation, includes busy passenger airports in major cities and airline hubs as well as a number of airports with heavy cargo traffic. 

Among the cities whose airports are listed are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, New York City and Los Angeles. The list had been provided earlier to CBS News by a source familiar with the discussions.

Read more and see the full list here.

Airlines that fail to meet the Transportation Department’s reduced flight capacity could be fined up to $75,000 for every flight over the threshold, the Transportation Department said.

The agency said airlines “will be liable for a civil penalty of up to $75,000 for every flight it operates above the limits set forth” in the order.

Smaller carriers that are classified as small businesses under the Small Business Act could face a penalty of up to $16,630 for every flight over the limit, the order states.

Meanwhile, among certain other conditions, the order also limits commercial space launches and reentries to between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time. 

Airlines will have more than a week to meet the Transportation Department’s goal of reducing their daily flight operations by 10%, the agency said.

In its order, DOT said airlines would be required to cut their flights by 4% on Friday and then 6% by Tuesday, Nov. 11, and 8% by Thursday, Nov. 13. They have until Friday, Nov. 14, to cut their service by 10%, assuming a deal is not reached by then to reopen the government.

“My department has many responsibilities, but our number one job is safety. This isn’t about politics – it’s about assessing the data and alleviating building risk in the system as controllers continue to work without pay,” Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in a statement. “It’s safe to fly today, and it will continue to be safe to fly next week because of the proactive actions we are taking.”

International flights are not included in the order issued Thursday by the Transportation Department.

“The order does not require a reduction in international flights,” DOT said in a news release. “Carriers may use their own discretion to decide which flights are canceled to reach the order’s goal.”

United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines had already stated that their international service would not be part of their cancellations.

Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, says every day the government shutdown drags on and workers go without pay, “risk is going to increase.”

Air traffic controllers “have to be 100%, 100% of the time,” he told CBS News’ Major Garrett on “The Takeout.” “But now they’re worried about putting gas in their car. They’re worried about putting food on the table. They can’t even pay for child care in some instances. So as that risk increases, you have to begin reducing the capacity of the of the system and take down the number of flights in order to ensure the safety of it.” 

Both Southwest Airlines and American Airlines disclosed that they are cutting about 4% of their scheduled flights Friday.

Southwest Airlines said in a statement provided to CBS News Thursday that it has “proactively canceled” 120 flights Friday, calling it a “small portion of our daily schedule.” It said it also expected to cancel fewer than 100 flights on Saturday,

The airline said its flight cuts on Friday amounted to a “4% reduction in flying across the 34 of the more than 117 airports we serve.”

“The vast majority of our Customers’ flights will not be disrupted, and Southwest will communicate directly with affected Customers as soon as possible,” the airline said in a statement. 

American Airlines also said it was cutting about 220 flights daily Friday through Monday, amounting to 4% of its scheduled flights at 40 airports.

“Even with these cancellations, we plan to operate around 6,000 daily flights,” the airline said.  

Meanwhile, the Alaska Air Group told CBS News in a statement that it only expected a few dozen cancellations Friday across its subsidiaries, which include Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air and Hawaiian Airlines. 

— Kris Van Cleave and Kathryn Krupnik 

Travel experts say passengers should be extra vigilant in monitoring communications from their airline before heading to the airport.

John Rose, chief risk and security officer at Altour, a travel management company, recommended that travelers use an airline’s app to track inbound flights to anticipate any delays. 

“The main thing to watch is that the flight is still going, that it’s on time. That’s a trick that’s easy to do on the airline’s app,” he told CBS News. 

Avoid checking luggage if possible, but Rose also advises packing a little extra, including essential medications, just in case.

“Plan to be stuck somewhere for an extra day,” he said. 

Read more here.

The expected flight cancellations on Friday will affect some of the busiest airports in the country, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and all three major airports in the New York City area, LaGuardia, JFK and Newark.

United Airlines expects to cancel nearly 200 flights a day this weekend, but says it is doing its best to minimize the impact on customers systemwide.

“We’re trying to be really thoughtful about where those flights come out,” said David Kinzelman, United’s chief customer officer.

“The key for customers to avoid being stranded is early action, early communication. That’s why we’re getting ahead of the curve now and proactively putting in our cancellations for today, for the next several days, to give customers time to plan ahead.”

Airlines are offering passengers more flexibility to rebook or refunds for canceled flights. One airline executive suggested that for urgent travel plans, passengers might want to book more than one flight as a backup.

“If you are headed to a wedding, funeral or something you must be somewhere for in the next few days — given the risk of flights [canceling] I would suggest passengers buy a backup ticket on another carrier that departs after the first ticket,” Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said in an Instagram post on Thursday. 

Read more advice for travelers here.

The FAA’s decision to cut back on flights comes after weeks of strain on the air traffic control system.

“Controllers … are very overburdened by short staffing, long hours and an increasing number of colleagues that have been calling off of work here after weeks without pay,” Sean Cudahy, senior aviation reporter for The Points Guy, told CBS News.

“You think about the worst type of snowstorm, the worst type of thunderstorm delay that we see where those delays kind of cascade, the cancellations, across the country — I think this is what we’re going to be dealing with,” he said, adding that the disruptions are likely to last for days on end.

American Airlines expects most of its passengers won’t be affected by the flight cuts.

“We expect the vast majority of our customers’ travel will be unaffected, and long-haul international travel will remain as scheduled,” the carrier said in a statement Thursday. “As schedule changes are made, we’ll proactively reach out to customers who are impacted.”

Travelers were urged to check their flights’ status on American’s website or mobile app. The airline said it wouldn’t charge a fee if passengers wanted to change their plans or request a refund.

“In the meantime, we continue to urge leaders in Washington, D.C., to reach an immediate resolution to end the shutdown,” the carrier said.

Southwest Airlines passengers can receive a refund if their flight was canceled, the airline said.

The carrier said in a statement that people will be automatically booked onto another flight in most cases. Passengers can also change their flight if the new itinerary doesn’t work.

“If you choose not to travel on your new itinerary, please cancel your reservation at least 10 minutes before the new flight’s scheduled departure time,” the airline said.

Delta Air Lines expects to operate most of its flights amid the cuts.

“Delta expects to operate the vast majority of our flights as scheduled, including all long-haul international service, and will work to minimize customer impact while keeping safety our top priority,” the carrier said Thursday.

The airline said it wouldn’t charge fees if flyers wanted to change, cancel or refund their flights.

“We will work to give customers as much notice as possible about any changes to their flights and apologize for any inconvenience these changes may cause,” Delta said.

Passengers were encouraged to check Delta’s website or mobile app for updates.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said the flight cuts would affect regional flights and travel between airports that aren’t the carrier’s hubs.

“United’s long-haul international flying and our hub-to-hub flying will not be impacted by this schedule reduction direction from the FAA,” Kirby said in a note to employees that was posted on the airline’s website. “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.”

Here’s a list of United’s hubs, with their airport codes:

• Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
• Denver International Airport (DEN)
• Guam’s Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport (GUM)
• Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
• Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
• Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey (EWR)
• San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
• Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)

The airline would make “rolling updates” to its schedule as the shutdown continues, Kirby said. All customers traveling during this period were eligible for refunds.