U.S. Government Shutdown Now Grounding Thousands of Flights Daily—What Travelers Need to Know

It’s easy to forget about that infamous “shutdown” that has been paralyzing the U.S. government since early October. With multiple repercussions and consequences affecting the proper functioning of the state, it’s indirectly impacting tourism and now, critically, air travel. Case in point: starting today, thousands of flights are being suspended across the United States.

Quick reminder: What exactly is a “shutdown”?

A shutdown, in its political and economic definition as used in the USA, refers to the immediate closure of government services and the unpaid furlough of all non-essential federal employees—that’s hundreds of thousands of people critical to the state’s operations. This results in the halt or slowdown of numerous public services throughout the country until things return to normal.

Typically, this situation occurs when Congress fails to pass a budget or funding bill before a predetermined deadline. That’s what’s been happening since October 1st with the 2026 budget, which remains gridlocked with far more serious repercussions than what you might see, for example, in Europe during similar budget crises.

Air travel on the front lines

In practical terms, for tourists, a shutdown often first impacts museums and national parks, which close or operate on a skeleton crew since there’s no paid staff to welcome visitors or maintain the sites. That’s certainly a major problem, but it pales in comparison to the consequences when the phenomenon affects air travel. Because beyond the inconveniences this creates for visitors, it poses enormous risks for Americans themselves and, crucially, for the country’s economy.

What we’re seeing are airports operating at reduced capacity with fewer staff present or being paid. This obviously includes air traffic controllers—who are absolutely essential—and when they can no longer do their jobs, airlines are “forced” to accumulate cascading delays and cancellations throughout their flight schedules.

This is exactly what’s been happening for several days now, with more than 60,000 aviation employees who, despite being furloughed, continue in some cases to work unpaid while many others simply don’t show up for their shifts. This is naturally destabilizing air traffic and airport operations, especially considering that over 2,000 air traffic controllers are estimated to be missing from their posts today.

This is why the U.S. Administration has declared: “we will reduce the number of flights by 10% at 40 of the country’s busiest airports and require airlines to cut their flight schedules.”

The impact starts now

This threat became reality starting this Friday, with more than 4,000 flights being canceled each day out of the 44,000 daily flight operations across U.S. territory. According to authorities, this is to prevent the situation from deteriorating further and to ensure safety is preserved as much as possible under these circumstances. We’ll likely see additional restrictions if this drags on—which could very well be the case for some time to come.