BREAKING: Monday U.S Travelers Hit With 2,400+ Flight Cancellations And Growing

November 12, 2025, 9:00 AM

Air travel woes persist into Tuesday as airlines brace to cancel 6% of flights at 40 bustling U.S. airports, adhering to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) directive— even as the Senate late Monday approved a bipartisan measure to halt the nation’s longest government shutdown.

By Tuesday afternoon, FlightAware data showed over 1,200 U.S. flights scrapped and more than 2,000 delayed. United Airlines released an extensive roster of its axed flights for Tuesday and Wednesday, spanning dawn-to-dusk routes nationwide from 6 a.m. to nearly 9 p.m.

Epicenters of Disruption

The mandate targets high-volume hubs in key metros: Chicago’s O’Hare, New York-area airports, Washington, D.C., Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, and Dallas-Fort Worth. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy is slated to brief on aviation updates from O’Hare on Tuesday, following his Monday appearance.

Compounding the chaos: Monday marked the season’s chilliest dawn, with frost gripping Florida and freeze warnings blanketing 66 million residents from southeast Virginia to the Gulf Coast. Temps plunged to the 20s and 30s, lingering 10-20 degrees below norms through the afternoon.

Midwest lake-effect snow, kicking off Monday, pushed northeastward Tuesday, threatening 4-8 more inches in vulnerable spots. Untangling weather’s toll from staffing shortfalls or FAA orders remains elusive.

FAA’s Escalating Cuts Amid Shutdown Stalemate

The FAA’s strategy, unveiled last week, schedules proactive cancellations to ease burdens on unpaid air traffic controllers and TSA staff—now 42 days into furlough. Expect 8% reductions Thursday, ramping to 10% Friday.

This squeeze arrives post-Senate vote, where eight Democrats crossed lines to greenlight the shutdown-ending bill. Yet hurdles loom: House approval, then President Donald Trump’s signature—he’s voiced backing, but full operations hinge on swift action.

Trump fired off a Monday Truth Social missive, blasting absentee controllers and floating a $10,000 bonus for shutdown stalwarts: “even though he admitted he didn’t know where the money would come from.”

Essential personnel can’t strike sans pay, per federal rules. A 2018 statute guarantees back pay, but six weeks of limbo have sparked shortages and snags at airports.

Traveler Strains and Airline Vows

Carriers pledge maximal rebooking flexibility, but realities bite: One NBC News interviewee endured three sequential cancellations.

Duffy stressed Tuesday that FAA-mandated axings trigger automatic refunds—airlines foot the bill, sans usual hurdles. Still, post-shutdown recovery could drag, delaying full schedules.

Monday tallied 2,400+ cancellations, including the FAA’s 4% quota. Over 5 million passengers have endured delays from controller crunches, per FAA stats.

Pre-Nov. 7, just 11 flights fell to staffing woes (Oct. 1-29). That ballooned to 4,162 (Oct. 30-Nov. 9), with 3,756 in the Nov. 7-9 spike when mandates hit the 40 airports.

Voices from the Front Lines

Passengers voice empathy for airport and airspace workers. Yet National Air Traffic Controllers Association head Nick Daniels warns of peril: “This is the erosion of the safety margin the public never sees, but America relies on every single day,” he declared at a briefing.

As bipartisan momentum builds, the skies hang in limbo— a stark reminder of shutdown scars on everyday mobility.