People sit in front of windows and look at the asphalt at Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City, April 3, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps/Utah News Dispatch)
A preliminary list shared by States Newsroom shows that the 40 airports that will see flights reduced by 10% during the government shutdown almost equal the list of the country’s busiest airports, which could result in thousands of flight cancellations across the country.
According to Airports Council International-North America, an airport industry group, a 10% reduction at the airports mentioned would mean the cancellation of 3,300 flights a day.
The Federal Aviation Administration had not released an official list of airports as of Thursday afternoon, but three sources familiar with the matter provided tables listing the proposed airports.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that the FAA will restrict air traffic at 40 major airports starting Friday to ease the stress on air traffic controllers who have been working without pay since the federal government shutdown on Oct. 1.
The airports on the tentative list are:
- Anchorage, Alaska
- Atlanta
- Baltimore
- Boston
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Midway in Chicago
- Chicago O’Hare
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky
- Dallas/Forth Worth International
- Dallas Love Field
- Denver
- Detroit
- Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Florida
- Honolulu
- Houston George Bush Intercontinental
- Hobby Houston WP
- Indianapolis
- Vegas
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- Minneapolis/St. Paul
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Newark, New Jersey
- LaGuardia International Competition in New York
- New York John F. Kennedy International
- Orlando, Florida
- Oakland, California
- Ontario, California
- Portland, Oregon
- Philadelphia
- Phoenix
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- Salt Lake City
- Seattle/Tacoma
- Teterboro, New Jersey
- Tampa, Florida
- Washington, D.C. Reagan National and Dulles International, both in Northern Virginia
Nashville taken, Raleigh-Durham not listed
While the list largely overlaps with the country’s busiest airports, there are some exceptions.
According to Airports Council International-North America, the busiest unaccounted passenger airport was in Nashville, Tennessee, and ranked 28th busiest in the nation in 2024.
Austin, Texas; Saint Louis; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Sacramento, California; New Orleans; Kansas City; and San Jose, California, were also among the 40 busiest airports that would not receive reductions on Friday.
Memphis, Anchorage and Louisville are outside the top 40 for passenger traffic, but are in the top three for freight traffic.
Oakland and Indianapolis ranked just outside the top 40 for passenger travel. Teterboro Airport was not among the group’s 50 busiest airports.
Loss of $327 million in daily economic output
According to the council, a 10% reduction at the named airports would reduce economic output at the airports by approximately $327 million per day.
Because the reductions apply to the country’s busiest airports, which serve as hubs for major airlines, they will also affect airports that are not on the list but rely on flights to and from those hubs.
The group’s president and CEO, Kevin M. Burke, said in a statement that the group and its members had adapted to rapidly changing conditions during the shutdown but were “reaching a breaking point.”
“The current trajectory is unsustainable,” Burke said. “As we face a busy holiday season, Congress and the administration must now come together to reopen the federal government with clean, bipartisan resolution, pay federal workers, and restore operational certainty to the millions of airline passengers who take to the skies every day.”
Safety priority
At Wednesday’s news conference, Duffy said the decision was made to fly safely. He urged overworked air traffic controllers not to take second jobs, but was “not naive” as many would have to do so to pay the bills.
He said the agency’s decision was made to prevent any accidents that could result from overworked controllers, while assuring passengers that commercial air travel remains extremely protected.
President Donald Trump was less explicit during his Thursday appearance in the Oval Office.
“Fair question,” the reporter said when asked if it was still protected to fly. “Sean Duffy has announced that he is making 10% cuts in some areas and he wants to make sure it’s 100% safe. That’s why they’re doing it.”
Democrats call for an end to shutdowns
Some Democratic lawmakers who blocked the bill to temporarily reopen the government at the fiscal 2025 level in an attempt to force Republicans to negotiate an extension of tax breaks for insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act platform have renewed those calls in delicate of the FAA decision.
Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, said in a statement that the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport serves 750 flights with an average of 60,000 passengers per day.
She called on Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to negotiate with their party on expiring health insurance tax credits to reopen the government “so we don’t see impacts like what we saw at MSP.”
“The only way forward is through negotiations so that air traffic in the skies over Minnesota and across the country can continue to operate safely and at full capacity, and so that our government can finally reopen,” she said.
The ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Democrat Rick Larsen of Washington state, called Duffy’s move “drastic and unprecedented” and demanded that the FAA release the data it used to make the decision.
He also called for an end to downtime to allow air traffic controllers to be paid.
“Closing parts of our national airspace system is a dramatic and unprecedented step that requires greater transparency,” he said. “The FAA must immediately share with Congress all safety risk assessments and related data on which this decision is based. If we want to solve the problems in the NAS, let’s fix health care, let’s open the government, and let’s pay transportation and aviation safety workers.”
