New Yorkers can expect flight cancellations starting tomorrow at area airports as the federal government shutdown continues.
Airports in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other busy transit hubs are expected to be affected by the air traffic reduction, according to The Associated Press. Transportation officials on Wednesday announced plans to reduce 10% of air traffic starting on Friday at 40 of the country’s busiest airports to alleviate pressure on air traffic controllers, who have been working without pay since the shutdown began last month.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the flight cuts are needed to reduce the strain on air traffic controllers who are continuing to work while some of their colleagues are calling out.
“Many of the same ones who show up continue to show up,” Duffy said Wednesday at a news conference. “Some of those who don’t show up continue to not show up, which means we have those who come to work, they’re working longer hours, working more days and that’s some of the pressure that we’re seeing on them and we want to alleviate that pressure before it becomes an issue.”
This is the longest government shutdown in the country’s history, surpassing the most recent shutdown, from President Donald Trump’s first term, which lasted 35 days between December 2018 and January 2019.
Spurred by a shortage of air traffic controllers, flight delays at LaGuardia and other major East Coast airports were largely credited as the tipping point that ended the shutdown in 2019.
New York City is home to some of the country’s busiest airports, including Kennedy Airport and LaGuardia Airport. Kennedy and LaGuardia are ranked among the 30 most active airports in the country, according to the FAA. Newark Liberty International Airport in neighboring New Jersey is also among the busiest.
An United Airlines flight arrives at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. Credit: AP/Nam Y. Huh
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said the flight reductions would harm New York’s economy.
“Secretary Duffy’s decision to reduce flights and create chaos at our airports is just the latest example of the Trump Administration using this GOP shutdown to hurt Americans,” Hochul’s spokesman Sean Butler said. “Grounding flights will hurt the economy in every corner of our state, especially communities served by smaller airports that are the first to experience cancellations.”
The head of the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday didn’t rule out additional cuts as the holiday season approaches.
“The system is extremely safe today. It will be extremely safe tomorrow and if the pressures continue to build even after we take these measures we’ll come back and take additional measures,” FAA administrator Bryan Bedford said. “We’re trying to be prescriptive, surgical, and put the relief where the relief will do the most good. But again we are not going to do anything that will compromise the safety of air transport in the United States.”