The 10% air traffic cuts that were supposed to roll out at 40 airports across the country on Friday have been grounded. Instead, the affected airports will remain at 6%.
The flight restrictions had been put into place last week to compensate for staffing issues during the 43-day government shutdown, which officially ended with President Donald Trump’s signature on Wednesday night, The Associated Press reported.
Air traffic controllers were still required to work during the nearly month-and-a-half-long shutdown but were not paid, missing two paychecks. Controllers were calling off work because of stress or needing to have a second job to make ends meet, while they were not being paid.
Flight cuts were supposed to go up to 8% on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Airports will continue with the 6% limit until air traffic control can resume normal operations, but as of Wednesday, Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy did not give a firm timeline.
“If the FAA safety team determines the trend lines are moving in the right direction, we’ll put forward a path to resume normal operations,” he said in a statement, according to the AP.
Delta anticipates being at full capacity “over the next few days,” the company said.
Southwest also said it should be back to normal in a few days, Reuters reported.
As of Thursday morning, FlightAware said there were 626 delays within, into or out of the U.S. and 992 cancellations.
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