Hundreds of flights canceled nationwide due to government shutdown; 32 flights cancelled at Denver; United able to rebook most affected passengers, so far

Airlines scrambled to adjust their schedules and began canceling flights Thursday in anticipation of the FAA’s official order, while travelers with plans for the weekend and beyond waited nervously to learn if their flights would take off as scheduled. Airlines also planned cancellations into the weekend, directing passengers to check apps to learn their flight status.

The 40 airports selected by the FAA span more than two dozen states.

The FAA said the reductions would start at 4% and ramp up to 10% by Nov. 14. They are to be in effect between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. and impact all commercial airlines.

The agency said the cutbacks are necessary to relieve pressure on air traffic controllers who’ve been working without pay for more than a month. Many are pulling six-day work weeks with mandatory overtime, and increasing numbers of them have begun calling out as the financial strain and exhaustion mount.

The cancellations at major airlines so far

Major airports across the country braced for cancellations on Friday as the result of the air traffic controller shortage created by the federal shutdown.

All 10 airports with the most cancellations had pulled approximately 3% to 4% of all departing flights.Here are the airports with the most cancellations as of noon ET on Friday:

— Chicago O’Hare International Airport: 40 cancelled flights

— Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport: 39 cancelled flights

— Denver International Airport: 32 cancelled flights

— Los Angeles International Airport: 28 cancelled flights

— Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport: 27 cancelled flights

— San Francisco International Airport, 24 cancelled flights

— Newark Liberty International Airport: 23 cancelled flights

Delta completes weekend cuts to flights

Delta Air Lines says it has completed all the cuts it plans to make for Friday, Saturday and Sunday to comply with the FAA order.

Customers have been notified if their flight is canceled and they have been automatically rebooked on the next best option. Refunds are available for anyone who does not want to travel.

Delta directed questions about how many flights have been canceled to the FlightAware numbers since these cuts are affecting the entire industry. FlightAware shows 851 cancellations Friday and 670 on Saturday and 274 on Sunday so far. By comparison, 202 flights were canceled Thursday.

Southwest Airlines says it cut about 120 flights on Friday

And it anticipates cutting fewer than 100 on Saturday to comply with the order to cut 4% of its flights at 34 of the 117 airports it serves.

Southwest said the “vast majority of our customers’ flights will not be disrupted,” and the airline will notify travelers who are affected as soon as possible.

“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees. We continue to urge Congress to immediately resolve its impasse and restore the National Airspace System to its full capacity,” Southwest said in a statement.

‘So I’m not hearing of chaos,’ airline analyst says

Airline industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, who’s president of Atmosphere Research Group, said Friday that even though the total number of flights canceled nationwide is large, the impact at each airport is generally pretty small and spread out throughout the day.

“The airlines are doing their level best to minimize inconvenience and to avoid canceling too many flights at any one time in order to obviously get people where they want to go,” Harteveldt said. “They want to make sure that they have some flexibility.”

“So I’m not hearing of chaos,” he said. “There’s certainly anxiety. There’s uncertainty. There’s stress. And look, if your flight has been canceled, it’s very disruptive for you. I don’t want to minimize the impact.”

But even if the airlines have been able to manage these initial cuts without significant impact, Harteveldt said the impact will grow next week as the airlines work their way up to cutting 10% of their flights by next Friday.

United, American airlines say they were able to rebook most travelers affected by flight cuts so far

United spokesperson Josh Freed said more than 80% of the people affected by the cuts have been rebooked with the vast majority of those scheduled to reach their destinations within four hours of their original plan.

“We’ve had a lot of success rebooking people is the bottom line,” Freed said.

The airlines focused the cuts on smaller regional flights to airports where they have multiple flights a day. That helped minimize the number of passengers affected and limited the disruptions to the airlines’ plan to position planes and crews in their hubs for the next flight.

American offered examples of some of the cuts it made. Flights from Dallas to San Antonio were cut from 11 a day to 10. Flights from Dallas to northwest Arkansas went from 10 to 8 a day. Boston to Reagan National went from 10 flights to 9.

Air Force One cleared for takeoff

Hundreds of flights are being canceled because of the government shutdown, but the president isn’t grounded. He’s expected to jet down to Florida’s Palm Beach today to spend the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, his private resort.

Travelers shift travel plans with delays rising at US airports

In the scramble to find alternatives to flying, Hertz is reporting a sharp increase in one-way car rentals. One-way reservations have spiked more that 20% through this weekend compared with the same period last year.

Hertz CEO Gil West urged Congress to restore certainty for travelers, saying “Every day of delay creates unnecessary disruption.”

Has this happened before?

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said this week that he’s never seen these kinds of measures taken before in his nearly four-decade experience in the aviation field.

“We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns,” he said.

Staffing problems led to delays throughout October, but they were mostly isolated and temporary. Last weekend, though, saw a change.

From Friday to Sunday evening, at least 39 air traffic control facilities reported potential staffing limits, according to an Associated Press analysis of operations plans shared through the Air Traffic Control System Command Center system. The figure, which is likely an undercount, is well above the average for weekends before the shutdown.

Which airports are affected?

The 40 airports selected by the FAA for reductions span more than two dozen states and include hubs such as Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami and Newark, according to an order published by the agency Thursday evening. A full list of affected airports can be found here.

Tips for passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled during the shutdown can be found here.

Airlines said they would try to minimize impact on customers

Some planned to focus on slashing routes to and from small and medium-size cities.

Carriers are required to refund customers whose flights are canceled but not to cover secondary costs such as food and hotel accommodations unless a delay or cancellation results from a contributing factor that is within the control of the airlines, according to the Department of Transportation.

Industry analyst Henry Harteveldt warned that the reductions will “have a noticeable impact across the U.S. air transportation system.”

More than 815 flights have been called off nationwide, according to FlightAware

Delta Air Lines said it would scratch roughly 170 flights Friday, and American Airlines planned to cut 220 a day through Monday.

The FAA said the reductions would start at 4% and ramp up to 10% by Nov. 14.