New York, Los Angeles and Chicago among 40 major US airports targeted for flight cuts due to gov’t shutdown

America’s busiest airports, including those in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago, were set to face hundreds of flight cuts starting Friday due to the government shutdown, according to a list distributed to the airlines and obtained by The Associated Press.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s order to reduce air traffic at 40 of the busiest airports across the US includes locations across more than two dozen states and is likely to ripple far beyond those targeted places.

With just hours to go, airlines were scrambling Thursday to figure out where to cut, and travellers with weekend plans were waiting nervously to see if their flights would take-off as scheduled.

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

“This is going to have a noticeable impact across the US air transportation system,” industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said.

The FAA said Wednesday it would reduce air traffic by 10% across “high-volume” markets to maintain travel safety as air traffic controllers exhibit signs of strain during the shutdown.

The affected airports include busy connecting hubs and those in popular tourist destinations, including Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Orlando, Miami, and San Francisco. In some of the biggest cities — such as New York, Houston and Chicago — multiple airports will be affected.

The FAA is imposing the flight reductions to relieve pressure on air traffic controllers who are working without pay during the government shutdown and have been increasingly calling off work.

The move also comes as the Trump administration is ramping up pressure on Democrats in Congress to end the shutdown.

Controllers already have missed one full pay cheque and are scheduled to again receive nothing next week as the shutdown drags on.

The FAA has been delaying flights at times when airports or its other facilities are short on controllers.

Passengers should start to be notified about cancellations Thursday. Airlines said they would try to minimize the impact on customers, some of whom will see weekend travel plans disrupted with little notice.

United, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines said they would offer refunds to passengers who opt not to fly, even if they purchased tickets that aren’t normally refundable.

The head of Frontier Airlines recommended that travellers buy backup tickets with another airline to avoid being stranded.

The cuts also could disrupt package deliveries because two airports with major distribution centres are on the list — FedEx operates at the airport in Memphis, Tennessee, and UPS in Louisville, Kentucky, the site of this week’s deadly cargo plane crash.

The cuts could affect as many as 1,800 flights, or upward of 268,000 passengers, per day, according to an estimate by aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Airlines are used to dealing with cutting thousands of flights on short notice during severe weather, but the difference now is that these cuts during the shutdown will last indefinitely until safety data improves.

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