Greater than 1,500 flights have been canceled nationwide on Saturday — with extra cancellations anticipated by Sunday — because the Federal Aviation Administration continued limiting flight capability at 40 main U.S. airports amid the federal government shutdown.
As of 10 p.m. ET on Saturday, 1,521 flights had been canceled nationwide and greater than 6,400 flights delayed — eclipsing Friday’s toll of 1,024 cancelations.
Main delays at airports throughout the nation continued to persist because of staffing points in air visitors controller towers and facilities.
A flight is listed as cancelled on a show at San Diego Worldwide Airport Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in San Diego.
Gregory Bull/AP
By Saturday night time, there have been over 40 air visitors management staffing triggers at services throughout the nation afternoon. There have been staffing-related floor stops at airports throughout the U.S. all through the day Saturday.
To date, Delta was seeing about 7% of its flights canceled and one other 30% delayed. American Airways and United each had about 3% of their flights Saturday canceled and 30% delayed. Southwest had about 3% of its flights canceled and 25% delayed.
If the federal government shutdown continues, extra air journey reductions could possibly be on the way in which, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy mentioned in an interview on ABC Information Dwell on Friday.
“My hope is that this authorities shutdown will finish quickly and we are able to get again within the enterprise of letting People journey,” Duffy mentioned within the interview.
It’s attainable the Division of Transportation could ask airways to cancel greater than 10% of their flights if controllers hold calling out in greater numbers, Duffy instructed ABC Information.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 07: An Air France aircraft takes off over a United Airways aircraft at San Francisco Worldwide Airport (SFO) on November 07, 2025 in San Francisco, California. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is decreasing flights by 10 % at 40 main airports nationwide, together with SFO, starting Friday amid air visitors management staffing shortages ensuing from the federal authorities shutdown.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Photos
Duffy mentioned the FAA has requested personal jets to keep away from flying on the 40 airports impacted by the flight reductions, although they’re at present not prohibited from flying there. He mentioned personal jet corporations have been cooperative and are selecting alternate airports to assist alleviate the strain at these airports.
The cancellations are the newest — and maybe largest — disruption to air journey because the authorities shutdown started greater than a month in the past.
The FAA determined to not reduce any worldwide flights as it might be a violation of worldwide agreements with the nations, in keeping with Duffy.
“We now have worldwide agreements that we abide by, and due to these worldwide agreements, I am not going to influence these worldwide flights. And since if I do, what is going to occur is now we have different nations which can be ready to have a breach of these contracts from the US to allow them to reduce down American flights, after which that will have a really lengthy lasting influence on our capacity to to to ship vacationers from the U.S. to these companions which have the agreements,” Duffy mentioned.
