People flying home for Thanksgiving will have one more thing to be thankful for this year: H.R. 5371, the funding bill President Donald Trump signed to end the longest shutdown in US history.
The move is a step closer to normalcy for flyers after FAA-mandated cuts led to thousands of flight delays and cancellations at major airports across the country.
But the disruptions aren’t over. More than 600 US flights have been canceled as of early today and over 500 are delayed, according to FlightAware data. This is down from the nearly 1,000 flights canceled yesterday.
The flight disruptions are primarily due to a combination of air traffic controller staffing issues and the mandated flight reductions — but also include unrelated flight cuts.
Here is what we know about the plans to get more planes back up in the skies – and the uncertainty that remains.
40 major airports still under flight cut orders: The Department of Transportation stopped short of the planned 10% cuts because more air traffic controllers started showing up at work. They will remain frozen at 6% until the FAA determines it is safe to resume more flights.
Long-term impacts on travel: Domestic flights are expected to cost 6% more over Thanksgiving week this year compared to last and rise 7% during the year-end holiday period, according to Going.com, but it’s not clear how those prices were affected by the flight cuts.
Could this happen again? The agreement Trump signed into law funds most of the government only through January. That means that airlines and passengers may be grounded again in three months.