U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy and FAA Administrator Brian Bedford hold a press conference at the U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters in Washington, DC, on November 5, 2025.
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Transport Secretary Sean Duffy announced Wednesday afternoon that 40 major airports will be cutting flight numbers by 10% starting Friday morning, impacting about 3,500 to 4,000 flights per day.
It is not immediately clear which airports will be affected.
“This is something proactive,” Duffy said at a news conference.
Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Brian Bedford said additional measures could be taken after the initial cuts.
“As we slice data into smaller and smaller pieces, we’re seeing pressure build in ways that we don’t believe that if we leave this data unchecked, we can continue to tell the public that we operate the safest aviation system in the world,” Bedford said Wednesday.
Bedford added that his administration plans to meet with the airline industry to determine how to proceed with implementation of the cuts, which he said has never happened during his time in the industry.
The government shutdown entered its 36th full day Wednesday, now the longest in U.S. history.
Duffy said more cancellations are expected as a result of the cuts, which have no set end date. “We thought 10% was the right number based on the pressures we were seeing,” Duffy added.
The move comes as air traffic controllers remain unpaid due to the government shutdown. Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration inspectors are among the essential government workers required to work during the government shutdown.
The FAA said the closures also raised concerns about an already low air traffic controller staffing shortage. Some FAA facilities are understaffed, causing some flight disruptions since Oct. 1.
Earlier this week, Duffy told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that if the shutdown lasts too long, it could “shut down the entire airspace.”
On Wednesday morning, Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that it could take “weeks” for air traffic controllers to recover from the impact of the government shutdown on air traffic controllers.
