Flight Delays and Airport Impacts: November 17, 2025

Published on Nov 17, 2025, 8:19 am CST

8 min read

Key points

FAA cancels its emergency order and restores normal operating levels at 40 high impact airports from 6 00 a m EST
ATCSCC plan flags possible afternoon ground stops or delay programs at LaGuardia Newark and San Francisco due to wind and rain
Weekend cancellation rates fell below 1 percent of flights with 315 cancellations Saturday and 149 Sunday according to Cirium and FlightAware
Runway and taxiway work continues at Tampa Orlando San Francisco Seattle Chicago O Hare and other hubs keeping capacity slightly constrained
Travelers with afternoon or evening connections through New York or the Bay Area should still build extra buffer time and monitor airline apps

Impact

New York Area: Afternoon and evening flights via LaGuardia and Newark face wind driven delay risk and possible programs so avoid tight connections
San Francisco: Rain and low ceilings could trigger a late day delay program so expect holding taxi congestion and potential missed onward flights
Boston And Philadelphia: Low visibility and wind may cause minor arrival metering that quietly erodes connection buffers on already busy schedules
Florida And Space Coast: Rocket launch windows and runway work at Tampa Orlando and Palm Beach can add short notice reroutes or brief ground holds
West Coast Hubs: Construction at Seattle and San Diego mixed with showers around Denver Las Vegas and Los Angeles can create rolling gate or runway changes
Nationwide Rebooking: With schedules rebuilding after shutdown cuts use airline apps and proactive same day changes to stay ahead of disruptions

The United States air travel system finally gets breathing room today. The Federal Aviation Administration has canceled its November 12 emergency order that forced domestic schedule cuts at 40 high impact airports, along with its November 14 addendum, and is restoring normal operating levels from 6 00 a m Eastern. That same order also lifts temporary bans on general aviation, public charters, and commercial space launches at peak times, which means the structure of the National Airspace System is back to its pre shutdown baseline even if the workforce and infrastructure are not.

For travelers, the headline is simple. Airlines can return to regular schedules, and over the weekend the system already behaved more like a normal busy November instead of an emergency throttled network. Data from Cirium and FlightAware show less than one percent of flights canceled this weekend, with 315 cancellations on Saturday and 149 on Sunday, by far the lowest numbers since the order took effect. That is a sharp contrast to November 9, when more than 2,700 flights were canceled and over 10,000 delayed on the worst day of the shutdown.

The catch is that lifting caps does not magically clear weather, construction, or staffing triggers. The FAA Command Center's current operations plan for Monday still highlights risk pockets at LaGuardia Airport (LGA), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), plus a long list of runway and taxiway projects that trim capacity at several hubs. Travelers should treat today as a transition from structural pain to more familiar, weather driven and construction driven delays, not as a guaranteed clean slate.

FAA plan for today

The Air Traffic Control System Command Center's latest operations plan, ATCSCC Advisory 026 for November 17, sets the tone. The key points:

LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) are both "in the plan" for possible afternoon initiatives because of forecast winds. After about 3 00 p m local time, the Command Center may introduce ground stops or ground delay programs for one or both airports if crosswinds or gusts force less efficient runway configurations.

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is flagged for rain and low ceilings, with a possible ground stop or delay program after about 4 30 p m Pacific. That kind of program tends to meter arrivals in timed intervals and can quickly cascade into long taxi queues, late departures, and missed west coast connections.

Terminal constraints extend beyond those three. The plan lists showers or wind at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Denver International Airport (DEN), and Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), wind at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), low ceilings around San Antonio International Airport (SAT) and the Chicago approach area, and showers with low ceilings at San Francisco plus wind at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). None of these carry active programs this morning, but they are the airports most likely to see arrival metering or pop up delays as conditions evolve.

En route, thunderstorms are noted in the Memphis, Oakland, and Los Angeles centers, and the plan calls out the Lake Erie West partial airspace flow constraint, active until early evening, which can tweak routings for flows touching that region. There is also a scheduled Rocket Lab launch from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, in a window from late morning into the afternoon, which can generate temporary routing and altitude restrictions off the Mid Atlantic coast.

The Command Center's playbook is dynamic, and travelers should think in terms of risk bands. Morning operations look relatively clean, with the heavy uncertainty focused on midafternoon through late evening at the New York airports and San Francisco. If your itinerary passes through those hubs in that window, you are effectively in the splash zone.

What the numbers say

The cancellation story is improving, but it is not over. During the worst of the shutdown driven cuts, Sunday November 9 saw more than 2,700 cancellations and 10,000 plus delays across the United States, with Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport absorbing hundreds of disrupted flights in a single day. Back to back days earlier that weekend each saw more than a thousand cancellations nationwide.

By contrast, the weekend that just finished looks almost calm by shutdown standards. Cirium's data and FlightAware's counts show fewer than one percent of scheduled flights canceled across Saturday and Sunday, well below the three percent flight reduction the FAA was still formally requiring for those days. That combination of data and staffing trend reviews is exactly what led the FAA safety team to recommend canceling the emergency order, and the agency to conclude that stress on the system has dropped back to manageable levels.

None of that means today will be perfectly smooth. Even in normal years, a typical November weekday sees thousands of delays driven by routine weather, airspace congestion, and local runway work. The difference now is that those delays are no longer amplified by a mandatory haircut in scheduled flights on top of controller shortages. Travelers are dealing with a stressed but recognizable system again, not an artificially throttled one.

Runways, equipment, and local choke points

The current operations plan's system impact section is a reminder that runway and taxiway projects still nibble away at capacity. Highlights include runway or taxiway constraints at:

Teterboro Airport (TEB), where runway 01 and 19 closures at set times today limit business aviation options into the New York area
Tampa International Airport (TPA), with runway 01R and 19L and runway 10 and 28 closed through November 19
Orlando International Airport (MCO), with runway 18R and 36L closed through November 19
San Francisco International Airport (SFO), where taxiway Z rehabilitation continues through November 19, compounding any weather restrictions
Seattle Tacoma International Airport (SEA), with phase three taxiway construction under way into December
Chicago O Hare International Airport (ORD), where east taxiway construction runs through mid December
Palm Beach International Airport (PBI), with runway 14 and 32 closed until early January, and San Diego International Airport (SAN), in the middle of a multi phase airfield construction program

Construction rarely makes headlines, but at banked hubs it reduces flexibility when weather or volume hits. If you have a tight connection at any of these airports, the combination of runway closures and even minor showers can be enough to push your inbound a few minutes late and erase your buffer.

How to use today's FAA data

The FAA Daily Air Traffic Report exists to give an at a glance sense of where low clouds, wind, or storms are likely to impact arrivals and departures, and it pairs with the NAS Status dashboard for real time delay details. Today, the signposts are clearer than they have been in weeks. If you strip away the shutdown emergency order, the system looks like a busy pre holiday Monday shaped mostly by a few vulnerable hubs, some persistent construction, and a modest set of en route constraints.

Practical steps:

If you are flying through LaGuardia, Newark, or San Francisco in the midafternoon to late evening window, assume a meaningful chance of delays. Try to move to an earlier connection or a longer layover if your airline allows free same day changes.
For Boston Logan, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, think in terms of minor drag. Shower bands and wind may produce longer taxi out times or arrivals held slightly away from the airport, which is enough to make a 40 minute connection feel tight.
If your itinerary touches Tampa, Orlando, Seattle, Chicago O Hare, Palm Beach, or San Diego, check your gate and runway configuration in your app. Construction can trigger unusual taxi routes or reduced acceptance rates that only show up as creeping delays over the course of the day.

Checking the FAA NAS Status page before leaving for the airport, then using your airline's app or website for flight specific alerts, remains the best one two punch for staying ahead of disruptions.

Final thoughts

The end of the shutdown emergency order is good news, but it is not a magic reset. Flight delays and airport impacts are shifting back toward familiar causes, such as localized weather, runway work, and routine congestion, layered on top of an air traffic control system that is still short of ideal staffing levels. Today's risk clusters around the New York airports and San Francisco in the afternoon and evening, with construction and scattered showers adding friction at several other hubs.

If your travel plans run through those airports, treat Monday as an early stress test of the rebuilt schedule. Build extra buffer into connections, monitor for ground delay programs, and use self service tools to move away from the most vulnerable banks while seats remain. The system is healing, but it is not yet bulletproof.