Flight Delays and Airport Impacts: November 19, 2025

Published on Nov 19, 2025, 8:27 am CST

11 min read

Key points

Low ceilings and showers are slowing arrivals in the New York and Philadelphia metro areas while controllers meter traffic
Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Seattle are all flagged in the FAA plan for possible afternoon ground stops or delay programs
Runway and taxiway projects at Tampa, Orlando, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago O'Hare, Palm Beach, and San Diego reduce flexibility during peak periods
Systemwide cancellations have dropped to well under one percent as shutdown related FAA flight cuts at 40 airports are rolled back
Midmorning FlightAware data shows only a few dozen cancellations within, into, or out of the United States even as delays climb into the hundreds
Travelers connecting through DCA, PHX, LAS, SEA, SFO, and New York area airports should build extra buffer and monitor apps for metering or ground stops

Impact

Northeast And Mid Atlantic: Low ceilings and showers around New York and Philadelphia mean metered arrivals and possible holding so plan buffer into and out of these hubs
Washington DC Corridor: Reagan National remains in the FAA plan for a possible ground stop which can quickly snarl East Coast shuttle banks and downline connections
Desert And West Coast Hubs: Phoenix Las Vegas San Francisco and Seattle face a mix of low clouds showers and construction which can trigger afternoon ground stops and ripples
Florida And Gulf Gateways: Runway closures at Tampa and Orlando plus storms along southern routes can slow departures and arrivals especially during evening banks
Shutdown Recovery: With mandated flight cuts lifted and cancellation rates back near normal most disruption now comes from localized weather and work zones not systemwide caps
Practical Planning: Favor morning departures longer connections and nonstop routings into or through flagged hubs and keep airline and FAA tools handy for real time updates

The picture behind flight delays and airport impacts on November 19 is finally shifting from crisis management to ordinary complexity. Government shutdown related flight cuts at 40 major airports have been rolled back, and the Federal Aviation Administration's own operations plan shows no staffing triggers anywhere in the National Airspace System. Instead, today's risks center on low ceilings across the New York metro and Philadelphia, a cluster of weather sensitive hubs in the desert Southwest and along the West Coast, and a long list of runway and taxiway projects that narrow margins at key Florida and coastal gateways.

FAA operations plan for November 19

Although the FAA's public Daily Air Traffic Report page still displays a September 30 summary, the real planning document lives at the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in the form of a daily operations plan advisory. Today's plan, issued as Advisory 023 for November 19, lays out low ceilings in the New York metro airspace, including Newark, Teterboro, and Philadelphia, and notes that arrival demand there will be managed with miles in trail spacing and possible airborne holding.

The same advisory flags low ceilings or showers around Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), San Francisco International Airport (SFO), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), and the broader Las Vegas terminal area, while calling out showers near Harry Reid International Airport (LAS). Planners explicitly list potential ground stops or ground delay programs this afternoon for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Phoenix, Las Vegas area fields including Henderson Executive Airport (HND) and North Las Vegas Airport (VGT), and Seattle, with the caveat that these initiatives remain contingent on how weather and traffic actually evolve.

En route, the plan highlights thunderstorms across a broad swath of center airspace, including Washington, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Memphis, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles centers, with a warning that oceanic route closures and partial constraints over western Lake Erie are possible later in the day. At the same time, the FAA's current reroutes summary shows no active re route advisories, which suggests that most flow restrictions will be handled at the level of metering, minor holding, or temporary programs rather than sweeping long haul diversions.

Construction remains a quiet but important driver of airport impacts. The operations plan lists runway closures at Tampa International Airport (TPA) and Orlando International Airport (MCO) through this evening, ongoing taxiway rehabilitation at San Francisco, runway and taxiway work at Seattle-Tacoma that extends into late November and early December, east side taxiway construction at Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), a runway closure at Palm Beach International Airport (PBI), and a long running construction phase at San Diego International Airport (SAN). None of these projects is new, but when combined with adverse weather they reduce the ability of towers and ramp operations to absorb surges without visible delays.

Finally, the same advisory lists several upcoming SpaceX launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base and Florida spaceports later in the week, along with a Stratolaunch test from Mojave. These do not directly affect today's flight delays, yet they are a reminder that temporary hazard areas and special routes can constrain capacity in specific corridors when the launch windows open.

Regional hotspots and airport impacts

In the Northeast and Mid Atlantic, the immediate story is grey rather than dramatic. Forecasts for New York City call for cool temperatures in the 40s Fahrenheit with significant chances of showers and a high probability of low cloud cover through the day. That combination is exactly what the FAA operations plan is reacting to when it calls for arrival metering into the New York metro airspace and Philadelphia. For passengers into John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport (LGA), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), and Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), the most common symptoms will be arrival delays, tighter spacing that pushes departure times back, and elevated risk of missed connections if your layover is less than an hour.

Farther south, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) appears in the plan as a candidate for a ground stop or delay program through the evening. Even a short program at Reagan can stack up flights across the Washington corridor and into the broader East Coast shuttle network. If your itinerary relies on a quick turn at DCA to or from points like Boston, New York, or Atlanta, building extra buffer or selecting earlier flights is a rational hedge.

In the desert Southwest, Phoenix Sky Harbor faces its own version of the low ceiling story, with historical and forecast data for November indicating that marine layer like cloud decks can sit low enough to force arrivals onto instrument approaches and tighter spacing, especially in the cooler morning hours. When that happens on a busy day, arrival metering or a short ground delay program is an efficient way for the Command Center to keep flows safe, but it can wreak havoc on thirty minute connections that were marginal even under perfect conditions.

Las Vegas sits at the intersection of weather, events, and demand. Forecasts call for a chance of showers and thunderstorms around Harry Reid International Airport, with mostly cloudy skies and temperatures around the high 50s Fahrenheit, which lines up with the FAA plan's references to showers in the terminal area. Layer that on top of Formula One related air traffic and the normal pre holiday buildup, and Las Vegas area airports become prime candidates for tactical ground stops if thunderstorms drift over key arrival and departure paths.

On the West Coast, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and San Francisco International Airport both face low ceilings, with Seattle also operating with one of its primary runways closed and ongoing taxiway construction. That mix means that even modest marine layer timing issues can cascade into longer arrival queues and holding patterns, particularly on shuttle routes up and down the Pacific coast that rely on tight turn times to keep aircraft and crews in rotation.

The Midwest is relatively calm by recent standards. The National Weather Service office responsible for Chicago notes overcast skies and chilly temperatures in the low to mid 40s Fahrenheit around Chicago O'Hare, but the FAA operations plan does not assign specific initiatives to the Chicago terminal area. Taxiway construction at O'Hare still reduces some flexibility at peak times, however, so a sudden burst of arrivals or any unforecast convective activity could introduce short lived departure or arrival delays.

In Florida, runway closures at Tampa International and Orlando International are the dominant constraint. With parts of the runway system unavailable, these airports have less room to maneuver around wind shifts or pop up thunderstorms, which is always a risk as Gulf and Atlantic moisture interacts with lingering frontal boundaries. For travelers into or out of central Florida, the practical implication is that afternoon and evening departures are somewhat more vulnerable to cascading delays if a line of storms materializes.

How shutdown recovery shapes flight delays now

The context for today's relatively manageable pattern of flight delays and airport impacts is the unwinding of an extraordinary episode in U.S. aviation. Earlier this month, the Department of Transportation and the FAA ordered up to a 10 percent reduction in flights at 40 high traffic airports under an emergency order tied to air traffic controller staffing shortages during a 43 day government shutdown. Those cuts at one point threatened to affect as many as one in ten flights nationwide if the shutdown had continued.

As the shutdown ended and controllers were assured of back pay and retention bonuses, the FAA first froze planned deeper cuts at 6 percent, then announced that required reductions would be lowered from 6 percent to 3 percent effective November 15 at 40 affected airports. By November 17, reporting from multiple outlets indicated that the agency was moving to end mandated cuts entirely and allow airlines to rebuild schedules ahead of Thanksgiving, with Cirium data showing that less than 1 percent of flights were canceled over the weekend and the nationwide cancellation rate sat around 0.36 percent.

Even so, the system is not back to a carefree baseline. Coverage of the shutdown's impact has emphasized that controller staffing will remain tight for months and that delays and cancellations can continue to flare up at vulnerable hubs, especially when weather or special events add stress. The main difference on November 19 is that the constraints now look like weather and construction overlaying a network that is regaining its usual capacity, rather than a network that is being throttled from the top by flight caps.

FlightAware's live cancellation tracker underscores that shift. As of midmorning, the site was showing on the order of a few hundred delays and a few dozen cancellations within, into, or out of the United States, with global delays in the low thousands. That is still frustrating if your particular flight is the one that does not operate, but it is a very different environment from the shutdown peak days that saw more than ten thousand delays and over a thousand cancellations on some dates.

There is also a behavioral overlay that matters for planning. Analysis of booking patterns around Thanksgiving indicates that domestic bookings for the holiday weekend are down roughly 3.3 percent compared with last year, with a noticeable drop in new bookings after the shutdown began dominating headlines. That means fewer passengers are competing for the same seats on some routes, which can soften the blow of rebooking when weather or programs disrupt a specific hub.

What travelers should do today

For travelers, the main lesson from November 19's pattern of flight delays and airport impacts is to treat the day as normal in structure but still noisy in execution. The FAA's own guidance stresses that the Air Traffic Report and National Airspace System tools are planning aids rather than guarantees and that passengers should always confirm flight specific status with their airline.

Practically, that translates into a few habits. First, if you are flying into or through the New York metro, Philadelphia, Washington National, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Seattle, or San Francisco, prioritize longer connections and earlier departures where possible. Low ceilings and potential ground delay programs at these hubs will be most punishing for tight connections. Second, if you are starting or ending your day at Tampa, Orlando, Palm Beach, San Diego, or Chicago O'Hare, account for construction driven taxi delays, especially during morning and evening banks. Third, keep both your airline app and public FAA tools handy, since they remain the fastest ways to see emerging ground stops, delay programs, and re route advisories.

Finally, remember that new federal refund rules now give you stronger rights when flights are canceled or significantly delayed within an airline's control, including automatic cash refunds in many scenarios. On a day when most disruptions stem from weather and construction rather than systemic collapse, those rules are the safety net that keeps a bad connection from turning into a total loss.

Final thoughts

November 19 looks like the kind of day the FAA Daily Air Traffic Report was originally designed to describe. Instead of shutdown era triage, the system's flight delays and airport impacts are shaped by familiar ingredients, such as low ceilings around the Northeast, marine layers on the West Coast, thunderstorms over key centers, and long planned runway work at busy hubs. That does not make the experience painless, particularly for travelers threading multiple connections through airports like DCA, PHX, LAS, SEA, and SFO, yet it does mean that ordinary tools like buffer time, morning departures, and route selection go a long way.

If you treat today less as a crisis and more as a noisy but navigable operating day, build realistic cushions around the hotspots on the FAA's operations plan, and lean on both airline and FAA information sources, you stand a much better chance of keeping your November 19 itinerary intact. The skies are not yet completely calm, but for the first time in weeks, they are closer to normal.