The availability of flights traversing American airspace is returning to normal, less than a week after the end of the 43-day government shutdown, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Sunday.
DOT Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced the cancellation of a Nov. 12 FAA order limiting the number of flights at airports, which itself had replaced the agency’s more stringent Nov. 7 flight reduction order affecting 40 of the nation’s busiest airports. The new order took effect Monday at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
The order “cancels all requirements of the November 12 Emergency Order, including to reduce operations at certain airports by 3 percent, and restores normal operating levels.”
“I want to thank the FAA’s dedicated safety team for keeping our skies secure during the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history, and the country’s patience for putting safety first. Thanks to President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, controllers have returned to their posts and normal operations can resume,” Duffy said in the Sunday press release. “Now we can refocus our efforts on surging controller hiring and building the brand new, state-of-the-art air traffic control system the American people deserve.”
“Today’s decision to rescind the order reflects the steady decline in staffing concerns across the NAS [National Airspace System] and allows us to return to normal operations,” Bedford said in the same release.
The FAA is an agency within the DOT. Most air traffic controllers work for the FAA, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
“The [FAA] has determined that normal flight operations can resume after multiple days of positive staffing with air traffic controllers in our towers,” Duffy wrote in a Sunday night X post. “Now we can refocus our efforts on hiring and building the state-of-the-art air traffic control system the American people deserve.”
The @FAANews has determined that normal flight operations can resume after multiple days of positive staffing with air traffic controllers in our towers.
Now we can refocus our efforts on hiring and building the state-of-the-art air traffic control system the American people… https://t.co/28wQpOfKHD
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 17, 2025
The FAA’s initial Nov. 7 order came 38 days into the government shutdown as federal employees supporting the air travel industry — including air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents — were working without pay.
Three days later, five Senate Democrats broke ranks with their party to secure a deal to support a funding bill to reopen the government. Trump signed the bill on Nov. 12, ending the shutdown.
Amid the shutdown-caused flight cancellations, the trade associations representing the four largest airlines in the U.S. warned in a Nov. 11 statement that airlines’ “reduced flight schedules cannot immediately bounce back to full capacity right after the government reopens.”
“It will take time, and there will be residual effects for days,” the statement added.
When reached for comment, the DOT referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to Duffy’s X post. The FAA did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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