Flight Delays and Airport Impacts: November 15, 2025

Published on Nov 15, 2025, 8:49 am CST

8 min read

Key points

FAA flight cuts at 40 high impact airports drop from 6 percent to 3 percent as of November 15
FlightAware fed data cited by WDSU shows a little over 400 U.S. cancellations early Saturday, well below the nearly 3000 seen last Sunday
The FAA says the 3 percent cap will stay in place through the weekend while controllers return and safety metrics are monitored
Even after caps are lifted, the agency warns that weather, runway construction, and local constraints can still drive delays and cancellations
Travelers should expect the worst pressure where high demand, remaining flight caps, and construction overlap at hubs like Atlanta, Newark, Los Angeles, and San Francisco

Impact

Connections Through Capped Hubs: Schedule longer layovers when connecting through the 40 constrained airports, especially in afternoon and evening banks
West Coast And Mountain Hubs: Build in extra buffer for flights into Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, and other construction or weather sensitive hubs
New York And Northeast Flyers: Watch for rolling delays at Newark and other New York area airports as staffing and demand stay tight
Point To Point Travelers: Expect fewer outright cancellations than earlier in the week but plan around possible same day timing shifts
Thanksgiving Planning: Treat today as a test of the eased caps and keep holiday itineraries flexible in case the FAA keeps limits in place longer

The U.S. flight network wakes up today under a different kind of pressure. After more than a week of stepped up cuts at the country's busiest airports during the record government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is lowering its mandatory flight reductions from 6 percent to 3 percent at 40 key airports, a shift that should ease cancellations while leaving the system far from normal.

Early morning data points to a network that is still strained but no longer in crisis mode. WDSU, drawing on live FlightAware figures, reports just over 400 cancellations within, into, or out of the United States as of 6 00 a.m. Central today, a tiny fraction of the nearly 3,000 flights scrubbed at the worst shutdown peak last Sunday. That is real progress, but it still represents hundreds of families, business travelers, and crews dealing with disrupted trips before breakfast.

FAA halves mandatory flight cuts at 40 airports

Late Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation and FAA confirmed that required airline schedule reductions at 40 high traffic airports would be reduced from 6 percent to about 3 percent, effective 6 00 a.m. local time today, November 15. Airlines had already adjusted schedules down from an original plan that contemplated up to a 10 percent cut, but this is the first formal easing of the caps since the shutdown began to wind down.

The list of 40 affected airports includes some of the most important hubs in the country, among them Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), San Francisco International Airport (SFO), and Seattle Tacoma International Airport (SEA). Together, these airports move an enormous share of the nation's passengers and feed connections to hundreds of smaller cities.

Federal officials stress that safety remains the binding constraint. Even with the government reopened, controller staffing has not fully normalized, and the FAA is explicit that the 3 percent cap will stay in place at least through this weekend while it watches key metrics like separation events, runway incursions, and controller fatigue reports. Only once those trend lines improve will the agency consider lifting caps altogether.

For travelers, the practical meaning is simple. There are more seats in the schedule than earlier in the week, but airlines still must operate with fewer movements than usual at some of the busiest times of day. That tension will continue to show up as trimmed frequencies, retimed departures, or swapped aircraft, especially on hub to hub and short haul routes that are easiest for carriers to consolidate.

What the latest delay and cancellation numbers really say

Looking back across the week, the trend is clearly improving but still volatile. WDSU's data driven coverage, again drawing on FlightAware, counted more than 1,000 canceled flights nationwide as of Thursday afternoon, even after the formal end of the shutdown. That figure was already below last weekend's peak but high for a random weekday in November.

This morning's drop to a bit over 400 cancellations shows that airlines are taking advantage of the lower cap to restore more of their schedules. However, cancellation counts can jump quickly when weather, construction, and staffing all lean in the same direction. Weekends also tend to carry heavier leisure demand, which leaves less slack when something goes wrong.

Delay statistics are telling a similar story. FlightAware's live cancellation dashboard shows several hundred U.S. cancellations and thousands of delays worldwide today, levels that are higher than a blue sky day but well short of a full scale meltdown. In other words, the system is stressed but functioning.

Structural pressure points: staffing, construction, and choke point hubs

Even with cuts halved, the underlying constraints have not disappeared. FAA officials have been blunt that controller staffing was fragile before the shutdown and remains fragile now, with retirements and attrition outpacing training in some facilities. A handful of key centers and terminal radar approach facilities still control the flow for large swaths of the country, so a shortfall in any one of them can cause rolling ground delay programs far away.

Separately, the 40 airport list itself concentrates risk because so many of those airports are both busy and delay prone in normal times. WDSU's "Get the Facts" analysis of Bureau of Transportation Statistics data shows that Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) already rank among the worst for average arrival delays, with some of the longest waits in the system even before shutdown cuts began. By contrast, airports like Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) in Honolulu and Portland International Airport (PDX) have historically higher on time performance, so cuts there hurt capacity but do not always create the same cascading delay behavior.

Layer on top of that the very ordinary but very real drag of construction. Runway and taxiway projects at hubs such as Denver International Airport (DEN), Tampa International Airport (TPA), Seattle Tacoma, Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), and San Diego International Airport (SAN) all leave less margin when traffic is heavy and controller staffing is tight, because there are fewer ways to sequence arrivals and departures when concrete is closed.

This is why planners are careful to warn that even once the 3 percent cap goes away, travelers should not expect a magic flip to "all clear." Weather systems, construction, and the occasional staffing glitch will still be enough to push some airports into delay programs as we move closer to Thanksgiving.

How travelers should adapt their plans today

For travelers flying today, the key shift is from managing widespread cancellations to navigating a more nuanced risk landscape. Instead of assuming that any given flight is at serious risk of being canceled, the better question is where you are flying, at what time of day, and through which connections.

If your itinerary touches one of the 40 capped airports, especially at peak morning or late afternoon banks, it is worth checking whether your airline has quietly retimed or consolidated frequencies. Flights between giant hubs like Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, Newark, and Los Angeles are particularly likely to be adjusted because carriers can move many people with fewer departures simply by upgauging aircraft or combining lightly booked flights.

Connection strategy matters more under today's conditions than on a routine weekend. When booking or rebooking, favor longer layovers through constrained hubs, even if that means a slightly earlier alarm clock or a later arrival at your final destination. A 90 minute connection at Newark or San Francisco is far more resilient than a 40 minute sprint, and that extra buffer can be the difference between a stressful overnight and a straightforward misconnect recovery.

Point to point travelers, especially those flying between smaller cities that feed one of the 40 hubs, should keep a close eye on their airline's app and opt in to every alert channel on offer. When carriers consolidate frequencies to honor caps, they often target the thinnest spokes first, leaving those flights with fewer backup options if something goes wrong. Having your app open and your phone charged when irregular operations hit is still one of the best ways to get a jump on limited rebooking inventory.

Finally, anyone using today as a test case for Thanksgiving plans should resist the urge to declare victory too soon. The halved cuts are a meaningful improvement, but demand will only climb from here. If you have flexibility, nudging holiday departures away from the heaviest travel days, or choosing earlier flights that give more same day recovery time, still makes sense in a system that is healing rather than fully healed.

Final thoughts

November 15 marks an important turning point in this shutdown era of U.S. air travel. The FAA's move to reduce mandatory cuts from 6 percent to 3 percent at 40 key airports is the first structural step toward normalizing schedules, and early cancellation counts support the idea that pressure is easing. At the same time, the agency is explicit that these partial caps will remain in place while it watches controller staffing and safety data, and that traditional drivers of disruption, from weather to construction, can still tip individual airports into rough days.

For travelers, the takeaway is not that it is unsafe or unwise to fly, but that smart planning still matters. Choose resilient connections, keep an eye on your airline's app, and treat the next few weeks as a period where the network is usable but fragile. Do that, and you can take advantage of the additional seats coming back into the system while keeping the risk of a trip ruined by cascading delays as low as the current environment allows.