Nov 11, 2025 - Economy

Duffy: Travel disruptions will get "much worse" if shutdown doesn't end soon

Rebecca Falconer

A gray-haired Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, wearing a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie with white dots, gestures before a podium with a DOT sign on it, as a bespectacled, bald FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford stares ahead while wearing a navy suit, cream shirt and yellow tie with blue dots — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (left) and FAA administrator Bryan Bedford in Washington, D.C., last week. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Air travelers faced more flight delays and cancellations on Tuesday and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned if the record-long government shutdown doesn't end soon, "we're not going to get to Thanksgiving."

The big picture: The Senate passed a bill Monday to reopen government and Duffy urged the House to follow suit as a Federal Aviation Administration mandate forced airlines to cut 6% of flights at 40 major airports on Tuesday. That number is set to hit 10% on Friday.

Many air traffic employees have been working without pay and travelers have faced weeks of flight disruptions as some workers have called out sick.
However, Duffy suggested at Tuesday's briefing that the situation seemed to be improving, with "a lot more air traffic controllers" coming in to work because he said he thinks they're "seeing an end to the shutdown and feel more hopeful."

By the numbers: Duffy said at the briefing at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport that transportation officials saw four staffing triggers on Tuesday, compared to 53 on Sunday and 81 on Saturday.

More than 1,700 flights into or out of the U.S. were canceled and over 3,000 delayed as of Tuesday evening, per the flight tracking site FlightAware.

Zoom in: Duffy said air traffic controllers would get 70% of their pay within 24 to 48 hours of the government reopening, but air travel would "radically slow down" if the House didn't pass the legislation needed to end the shutdown.

"I think we might find airlines that have to make decisions," he said. "Do they keep flying? If this doesn't open, you might have airlines that say, 'We're gonna ground our planes. We're not going to fly anymore.' That's how serious this is," he said.
"If the House doesn't pass this bill, I think you're going to look at Saturday, Sunday and Monday as tiddlywinks. It was beautiful. It's going to get much worse than that."

Go deeper: Trump threatens to cut air traffic controllers' pay

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Duffy: Travel disruptions will get "much worse" if shutdown doesn't end soon

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