- All FAA shutdown-related flight restrictions ended Monday at 6 a.m. EST, lifting a 4% flight reduction across 40 major airports and other operational limits.
- Many airlines ignored the mandated cuts — canceling fewer flights than normal — prompting the FAA to review potential enforcement actions and fines.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shifted focus to a $31.5 billion air-traffic control modernization effort, with Congress approving $12.5 billion so far.
As of Monday morning at 6 a.m. EST, all shutdown-related restrictions were terminated across the U.S., and normal operations ordered to resume across the National Airspace System.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford made the announcement Sunday. The cuts began on Nov. 7, trimming flights by 4% across 40 major airports.
Other shutdown-related DOT restrictions that will end include:
- Limits on some general aviation operations at 12 airports
- Limits on some visual flight rule approaches at facilities with staffing triggers
- Limits on commercial space launches and reentries to the hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time
- Limits on parachute operations and photo missions near facilities with staffing triggers
While airports were asked to enforce the 4% reduction cuts, the aviation analytics firm Cirium found that airlines had not been complying with the requirement anyway.
On Sunday before the announcement, only a quarter of a percent of flights at those 40 airports were canceled, which is fewer than normal cancellations.
At the end of Duffy’s announcement, he wrote, “The FAA is aware of reports of non-compliance by carriers over the course of the emergency order. The agency is reviewing and assessing enforcement options.”
When mandated, the order said the FAA could seek fines of $75,000 for every flight operated above the reduction limit.
The flight cuts were originally ordered to ease pressure on air traffic controllers, who were struggling to keep up with demand during shutdown-related staffing shortages.
Duffy shifts attention to updating traffic control systems
In the press release, Duffy thanked the FAA’s safety team and President Donald Trump for his leadership during the shutdown.
He added, “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.”
Duffy appeared on Fox News, Monday morning, to discuss his $31.5 billion project upgrading American air-traffic control systems.
“We’re starting the process of moving from copper ... to fiber. And then we have to go from analog to digital,” he told Fox News. “We’re going to buy new radios, new radars, new voice switches, all really important components of how information flows to the air traffic controller.”
So far, Congress has approved $12.5 billion for the ATC system overhaul, as part of the “Big Beautiful Bill.”