Flight cancellations on Saturday
Circles are sized by the number of canceled flights. Lines are the routes of flights that were canceled.
Hundreds of flights across the United States were canceled on Saturday, the second day of reductions as deeper cuts loom in the coming days.
Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Department officials have said the traffic reduction is necessary to ease pressure on air traffic controllers, some of whom have been calling in sick and working second jobs because they have not been paid during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Nearly one thousand flights were canceled on Friday. That amounted to less than 4 percent of overall U.S. flight activity, and major travel hubs appeared to be relatively calm. But the warning on Friday from Sean Duffy, the Transportation secretary, that the number of mandated flight reductions could rise brought home the effects of the government shutdown to many more Americans.
U.S. officials identified 40 airports where flights should be cut in phases, with the goal of reducing activity by 10 percent by the end of this coming week.
The reduction in traffic comes weeks before the busy holiday travel season begins in the United States. The airports that have already been affected range from large hubs to smaller destinations. They are in blue states and red states, spread across the country.
Here is a look at how cuts at affected airports compare to cancellations at those hubs this time last year:
Share of scheduled flights that were canceled in recent days and throughout Nov. 2024
Charlotte
3.1%
41 of 1,327 flights
9.4%
122 of 1,301 flights
0.1%
Indianapolis
5.7%
17 of 297
5.7%
14 of 244
0.2%
Oakland
5.4%
11 of 203
5.2%
8 of 155
0.4%
Washington Reagan
17.4%
151 of 869
5.1%
32 of 625
0.2%
Tampa
3.4%
17 of 493
5%
21 of 416
0.2%
Chicago Midway
2.5%
10 of 405
4.6%
14 of 306
0.3%
Cincinnati
7.2%
18 of 250
4.5%
9 of 199
0.2%
Newark
4.5%
42 of 940
4.3%
33 of 759
0.4%
New York LaGuardia
4.5%
47 of 1,045
4.2%
26 of 614
0.1%
Atlanta
4.2%
84 of 1,979
4.1%
72 of 1,775
0.1%
Detroit
4.3%
35 of 806
4.1%
30 of 725
0.1%
Fort Lauderdale
2.8%
16 of 564
4%
22 of 548
0.1%
Phoenix
3.6%
44 of 1,206
4%
41 of 1,015
0.3%
Washington Dulles
3.2%
20 of 619
3.9%
21 of 545
0.2%
New York JFK
4.5%
41 of 913
3.9%
35 of 901
0%
Orlando
2.7%
27 of 1,001
3.9%
38 of 970
0.2%
Philadelphia
4.3%
30 of 701
3.9%
24 of 612
0.1%
Denver
3.6%
67 of 1,866
3.8%
58 of 1,518
1.4%
Minneapolis/St. Paul
4.5%
35 of 784
3.8%
26 of 682
0.1%
Salt Lake City
3.2%
21 of 650
3.8%
22 of 584
0.2%
Chicago O’Hare
3.5%
82 of 2,313
3.7%
76 of 2,052
0.3%
Portland (Ore.)
2.3%
10 of 438
3.6%
13 of 364
0.5%
Boston
4.8%
46 of 960
3.5%
26 of 750
0.1%
San Diego
3.5%
22 of 627
3.5%
17 of 479
0.4%
Houston Hobby
6%
20 of 336
3.4%
9 of 265
0.4%
Baltimore-Washington
3.2%
18 of 562
3.2%
14 of 439
0.2%
Dallas Love Field
2.7%
11 of 402
3.2%
10 of 311
0.9%
Dallas-Fort Worth
3.4%
62 of 1,810
3.2%
55 of 1,707
1.7%
Los Angeles
3.9%
50 of 1,274
3.2%
36 of 1,121
0.3%
Seattle-Tacoma
2.3%
24 of 1,033
3.2%
29 of 904
0.5%
Louisville
8%
12 of 150
3.1%
4 of 128
0.1%
Miami
2.7%
23 of 839
3%
26 of 869
0.1%
George Bush Houston
3.1%
35 of 1,112
2.8%
28 of 1,001
0.2%
San Francisco
4.3%
41 of 960
2.8%
24 of 850
1.2%
Las Vegas Reid
2.5%
29 of 1,138
2.6%
23 of 869
0.3%
Ontario
3.6%
6 of 168
2.3%
3 of 131
0.7%
Honolulu
2.5%
10 of 400
2%
8 of 393
0.3%
Anchorage
1%
2 of 201
1.7%
3 of 172
1.3%
Memphis
3.1%
5 of 160
1.6%
2 of 126
0.2%
Teterboro
0%
0 of 8
0%
0 of 6
No data