The Department of Transportation is still requiring airlines to reduce flight schedules by 10% at 40 major airports nationwide, even as the government shutdown winds down.
For now, major carriers say they will mostly cut service through their regional partners, meaning flights between large hubs and smaller cities and towns are most likely to be affected. However, the system has been discombobulated already, and the impact is likely to reach the Thanksgiving holiday.
"Typically, with a storm, one airline can recover operations within 48 to 72 hours after the weather event has finished ‒ but that’s when one hub is impacted," Tiffany Funk, co-founder and president of the travel-tech company point.me, said. "This is unprecedented, and it's also storm season. I don't think we'll see equal recovery. Airports will come online at different rates, which means airlines won't be equally impacted."
Why cutting flights is 'the right decision' during the government shutdown
Airlines for America, the industry’s main trade group, warned that “more than 3.5 million passengers have experienced delays or cancellations because of air-traffic-control staffing concerns since the shutdown began,” calling the situation “not sustainable” with an all-time-high 31 million passengers expected between Nov. 21 and Dec. 1.
