Topline
The Federal Aviation Administration will lift all restrictions imposed on commercial flights as a result of the government shutdown early on Monday morning, ending an emergency order that triggered thousands of cancellations and significant disruptions in travel across the country.
The FAA ended its emergency order that restricted flight operations across 40 major airports as a result of staffing shortages triggered by the government shutdown.
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Key Facts
In a joint statement, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced that the flight reduction emergency order—which impacted operations at 40 major airports across the country—“will be terminated on Monday…at 6 a.m.” E.T.
The statement said the FAA’s safety team recommended the termination after “detailed reviews of safety trends and the steady decline of staffing-trigger events in air traffic control facilities.”
The emergency order initially cut 4% of all flights at 40 major airports due to air traffic controller staffing shortages, and this eventually grew to 6% before the FAA rolled it back by 3% late last week, after the record 43-day shutdown ended.
The statement said staffing levels have continued to recover since the end of the shutdown, noting that only one staffing trigger was recorded on Sunday and eight on Saturday—down from a record high of 81 staffing triggers last weekend.
Staffing triggers are alerts that activate when there are too few air traffic controllers at any airport.
The agency will also end “limits on some general aviation operations at 12 airports,” limits on commercial space launches and reentries and limits on visual flight approaches at some facilities.
Crucial Quote
In a post on X, Duffy said: “The FAA has determined that normal flight operations can resume after multiple days of positive staffing with air traffic controllers in our towers. Now we can refocus our efforts on hiring and building the state-of-the-art air traffic control system the American people deserve.” Duffy’s remarks in the joint statement credited President Donald Trump for the resumption, saying: “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, controllers have returned to their posts and normal operations can resume.”
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2025/11/17/flight-restrictions-triggered-by-government-shutdown-ending-today-faa-says/
