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Flight reductions and delays could last another week, officials say
Date: 2025-11-14 Source: abc News

Airline disruptions continued across the U.S. on Thursday morning, with over 1,000 flights canceled, according to tracker FlightAware, as officials warned it may take days for airports to get back up to speed despite President Donald Trump signing a bill to end the government shutdown on Wednesday.

In addition to 1,017 cancellations, some 2,478 flights were delayed on Thursday as of 4:30 p.m. ET, with 415 flights scheduled for Friday also already canceled, according to FightAware.

It could take up to a week for air travel to return to normal operations after the government shutdown ends, Airlines for America President and CEO Chris Sununu said at a press briefing Wednesday afternoon.

The sun sets over an air traffic control tower at O'Hare International Airport in Illinois, Chicago, U.S., Nov. 12, 2025.

Daniel Cole/Reuters

The airports seeing the most cancellations on Thursday include Chicago O'Hare International Airport with 52, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport with 43 and Denver International Airport with 37, according to FlightAware.

The Federal Aviation Administration froze flight reductions on Wednesday that were initially set to increase on Thursday, as the number of canceled flights in the United States has steadily decreased this week.

The FAA issued an emergency order on Wednesday evening freezing the flight reductions at their current level of 6%.

Under a prior order, airlines had been required to reduce operations at 40 "high-impact airports" by 8% by Thursday and by 10% by Friday. The new order means those reductions will no longer increase.

With Thanksgiving just two weeks away, Sununu said he doesn’t see any impacts lasting into the holiday season.

"I don't think any flights over the Thanksgiving week have actually been canceled yet. I think the airlines have been pretty tight working with the FAA looking a few days out to be sure," Sununu said. "We're still a good week-plus away from that Thanksgiving week. There's still plenty of time to make sure that everything over the Thanksgiving week goes off as originally planned."


Pilots and passengers crowd a gate area as flight delays persist amid FAA measures more than a month into the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., November 10, 2025.

Chris Helgren/Reuters

The 6% flight reductions will remain in place "as the FAA continues to assess the situation and determines when airlines and systems can safely and gradually return to normal operations," the Department of Transportation said.

The order comes after more than 900 flights were canceled Wednesday in the U.S. as of approximately 8 p.m. ET, with departures from the busy hubs of Chicago, Denver and Atlanta leading the list of the most cancellations, according to FlightAware.

The cancellations and delays have slowly crept down throughout the week, however, once Congress appeared ready to end the shutdown.

ABC News' Kevin Shalvey, Meredith Deliso and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.