Overview
- The House is expected to vote today on the Senate-passed funding bill, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says controllers would receive roughly 70% of back pay within 24–48 hours of reopening, with the rest about a week later.
- The FAA is maintaining a 6% reduction in scheduled flights at 40 major airports and has warned cuts could increase to 8–10% later this week, with some business and private flights barred at select hubs to ease congestion.
- Operational strain has eased from the weekend peak of nearly 3,000 cancellations and over 10,000 delays, with around 800–900 cancellations reported Wednesday and staffing alerts dropping from 81 on Saturday to four on Tuesday.
- Airlines and experts caution that normal operations will not resume immediately, with recovery estimates ranging from several days to up to two weeks and potential ripple effects into the Thanksgiving travel period.
- A longstanding controller shortage—about 3,000 below target—has been worsened by accelerated retirements during the shutdown, even as the FAA keeps training pipelines open and explores faster hiring through programs like ECTI.