U.S. airlines announce refund policies amid FAA-imposed restrictions

While the FAA's government shutdown-induced reduction in air traffic is in place, United, Southwest and American will offer refunds to any booked passenger, and Delta will offer refunds to any flyer traveling through one of the 40 markets impacted by the cuts. 

The carriers announced the policies as they prepare to reduce flights and rebook passengers when the FAA starts implementing an air traffic reduction on Nov. 7. 

FAA administrator Bryan Bedford announced on Nov. 5 that the FAA will impose capacity cuts of 10% in 40 high-volume flight markets. The move is a safety measure designed to ameliorate air traffic controller fatigue as the federal government shutdown continues. 

United said that it will focus flight cuts primarily on regional routes, with some cuts to domestic mainline operations that don't traverse between hubs. United, American and Delta each said that their international operations won't be impacted.  

Airlines plan to proactively notify customers if their schedules are changed. 

The FAA intends to release the list of impacted airports on Thursday. The Associated Press obtained a list distributed to airlines and reported that affected airports include Atlanta, Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Orlando, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and airports in the New York area, Chicago and Houston. A United travel waiver listed Cleveland and Washington Dulles airports. 

Reuters, citing industry sources, said that in a call with major U.S. carriers, the FAA said capacity reductions would start at 4% on Nov. 7 and gradually ramp up to 10%. 

Airlines emphasized that the large majority of customers won't be affected by schedule cuts. In a rough analysis, flight data provider Cirium estimated the cuts could result in as many as 1,800 canceled daily flights. 

Controllers aren't receiving paychecks during the shutdown, which has led to escalating call-outs by workers, according to the U.S. Transportation Department. The controllers who are going to work are often covering for missing colleagues, said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. FAA data, taken from voluntary safety-disclosure reports from airline pilots, is showing a rise in controller fatigue, Bedford said. 

The capacity cuts are to remain in place until data shows that controller fatigue has returned to acceptable levels. A return to normal air traffic flows won't be tied directly to the end of the shutdown, Duffy said, though there likely would be correlation since fewer controllers are expected to call out once they again receive paychecks. 

The shutdown until now has not led to widespread delays. In October, 79.9% of domestic flights arrived on time or less than 15 minutes late, Cirium data shows. That was down from 86.9% in October 2024 but better than 78.1% for all of 2024, according to Transportation Department statistics. 

U.S. carriers canceled just 0.5% of flights last month compared to 0.8% in October 2024. 

Of the 19 largest U.S. airports, only Newark had more than 1% of flights canceled in the first five days of November. The rest were below 0.5%.

Nevertheless, controller staffing issues have worsened since the shutdown. According to an AP analysis of Air Traffic Control System Command Center data, an average of 26.2 facilities have reported staffing issues on weekends during the shutdown. That's up from 8.3 facilities on weekends from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30.