FAA Cuts Flights as Government Shutdown Hits 40 Days with No End in Sight

As the Biden-era government shutdown drags into its sixth week, the consequences are starting to ground more than just paychecks. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed Friday that it has begun cutting air traffic by 10% across 40 major airports, citing severe staffing shortages among unpaid air traffic controllers.

With controllers entering a second missed paycheck, absences are rising and so are canceled flights, delays, and travel chaos. This is the longest government shutdown in modern U.S. aviation history, and experts are warning: it’s about to get worse.

“This would affect thousands of flights per day, and tens of thousands of passengers,” said Marc Scribner of the libertarian Reason Foundation. “It’s a major disruption.”

Airports in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Denver, and San Francisco are among those affected. Some metro areas with multiple airports like New York and Chicago are facing reductions across all facilities.

Despite assurances that flight safety isn’t compromised, travelers are already feeling the impact and Washington is still locked in gridlock.

While President Trump and congressional Republicans have urged targeted funding to support essential services during the shutdown, Senate Democrats have stalled, using the shutdown as a political bargaining chip rather than a moment to deliver relief.

“Unfortunately, I think it’s going to have to continue until the shutdown ends,” said Richard Stern of The Heritage Foundation. “They’re running through resources that they don’t have.”

Since Oct. 1, air traffic controllers have been working without pay, facing grueling schedules, mandatory overtime, and fatigue-induced errors some of which have already shown up in voluntary safety reports from pilots. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford confirmed the cuts were necessary to prevent a full-blown crisis:

“We’re not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself,” Bedford said. “If the pressures continue to build… we’ll come back and take additional measures.”

This situation is completely unprecedented. Bedford, who has worked in aviation for 35 years, said, “I’m not aware of a situation where we’ve had to take these kinds of measures.”

Washington’s failure to govern is now affecting tens of thousands of Americans daily, not just on paper, but in missed flights, canceled plans, and airport chaos.

Officials insist that the system remains “extremely safe,” but that safety comes at the cost of fewer flights and rising strain on the workforce. Scribner warned that if the shutdown continues, staffing levels could deteriorate even further as workers call in sick or quit altogether.

“Travelers shouldn’t be concerned about safety,” Scribner said. “But they should be concerned about their travel schedules, which are likely to be impacted.”

The Biden administration’s refusal to accept short-term bipartisan fixes has brought the country to this point. And rather than restoring operations or funding pay for essential personnel, Democrats continue to play politics with American lives and livelihoods.

The Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, refused to comment on when the flight reductions might end.

Meanwhile, Democrat-run states like California and Maryland are focusing on redistricting and political optics, while working Americans sit stranded in airport terminals and watch their travel plans implode.

This is what happens when a government cares more about ideology than infrastructure, and when it’s more interested in fighting political opponents than solving real problems.

If this administration won’t step up and act to reopen the government and pay essential workers, Americans will remember in 2026 who grounded their flights and stalled their lives.

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