Air travelers face frustration as FAA’s further drop in flights takes effect

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By RIO YAMAT and JOSH FUNK, Associated Press

Air travelers could face more frustration as busy U.S. airports need to meet a higher Federal Aviation Administration target for reducing flights Tuesday after already canceling thousands to scale back demands on the nation’s aviation system during the government shutdown.

The arrivals board shows a cancelled flight from New York at Indianapolis International Airport in Indianapolis, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

The FAA ordered domestic airlines last week to drop 4% of their flights at 40 major U.S. airports, saying absences and signs of stress among traffic controllers made it imperative to act in the name of public safety. After already canceling more than 7,900 since Friday, the goal for cutting flights is set to rise to 6% on Tuesday and again to 10% on Friday.

More than 1,100 flights were canceled Tuesday, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks air travel disruptions. It was unclear exactly how many additional flights would need to be canceled for the day.

The average cancellation rate over the last few days already exceeded the FAA’s requirement, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. The FAA also expanded its flight restrictions Monday, barring business jets and many private flights from using a dozen airports already under commercial flight limits.

However, controller shortages continued to lead to flight delays, including one of about five hours for arriving flights Monday evening at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, where wintry weather added to staffing-related disruptions earlier in the day. The FAA warned that staffing at over a dozen towers and control centers could delay planes departing for Phoenix, San Diego, the New York area and Houston, among other cities.

Freezing weather in parts of the country on Tuesday could cause further delays and cancellations.

An air traffic control tower is seen at O’Hare International Airport, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

The Senate passed legislation Monday to reopen the government, but the bill still needs to clear the House and final passage could be days away. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made clear last week that flight cuts will remain until the FAA sees staffing levels stabilize at its air traffic control facilities.

Many planes also aren’t where they’re supposed to be, which could slow the airlines’ return to normal operations even after the FAA lifts the order, said Mike Taylor, who leads research on airports and airlines at J.D. Power.

Todd Walker said he missed his mom’s 80th birthday when his flight was canceled over the weekend.

“All of this has real negative consequences for millions of Americans, and it’s 100% unnecessary and avoidable,” he said.

The FAA had come under criticism after its original order only applied to a very small subsection of private planes. But some want to see even more done.

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Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans pushing for more progressive taxes, is calling for all private jets to be grounded during the shutdown.

“Rich people are taking their joyrides while average Americans don’t make it to grandma’s bedside in time,” said Erica Payne, its founder and president.

She added that none of its members that still fly private have reported cancellations or delays since the FAA’s order took effect.

Tuesday marks the second missed payday for controllers. Some have started calling out of work, citing stress and the need to take on second jobs.

It’s unclear how quickly controllers might be paid once the shutdown ends — it took more than two months to receive full back pay after the 35-day shutdown that ended in 2019, said Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

President Donald Trump took to social media on Monday to pressure controllers to “get back to work, NOW!!!” He called for a $10,000 bonus for those who’ve stayed on the job and suggested docking pay for those who haven’t.

Daniels said the shutdown has made controllers’ demanding jobs even more stressful, leading to fatigue and increased risks. He said the number who are retiring or quitting is “growing” by the day.

Yamat reported from Las Vegas and Funk from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Ken Sweet, Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Michael R. Sisak in New York; Stephen Groves and Kevin Freking in Washington; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

Shutdown leaves a mark on an already-struggling economy, from lost paychecks to canceled flights

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By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history appears to be nearing an end, but not without leaving a mark on an already-struggling economy.

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About 1.25 million federal workers haven’t been paid since Oct. 1. Thousands of flights have been canceled, a trend that is expected to continue this week even as Congress moves toward reopening the government. Government contract awards have slowed and some food aid recipients have seen their benefits interrupted.

Most of the lost economic activity will be recovered when the government reopens, as federal workers will receive back pay. But some canceled flights won’t be retaken, missed restaurant meals won’t be made up, and some postponed purchases will end up not happening at all.

“Short-lived shutdowns are usually invisible in the data, but this one will leave a lasting mark,” Gregory Daco, chief economist at accounting giant EY said, “both because of its record length and the growing disruptions to welfare programs and travel.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that a six-week shutdown will reduce growth in this year’s fourth quarter by about 1.5 percentage points. That would cut growth by half from the third quarter. The reopening should boost first-quarter growth next year by 2.2 percentage points, the CBO projected, but about $11 billion in economic activity will be permanently lost.

The previous longest government shutdown, in 2018-2019, lasted 35 days but only partially shut the government because many agencies had been fully funded. It only nicked the economy by about 0.02% of GDP, the CBO said then.

The current shutdown is adding to the economy’s existing challenges, which include sluggish hiring, stubbornly elevated inflation, and President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have caused uncertainty for many businesses. Still, few economists foresee a recession.

About 650,000 federal workers didn’t work during the shutdown, which will likely boost the unemployment rate by about 0.4 percentage points in October, or to 4.7% from 4.3% in August, when the last report was released. Those workers would all then be counted as employed once the government reopens.

Here are the ways the government closure is weighing on the economy:

Missed paychecks

All told, federal workers will have missed about $16 billion in wages by mid-November, the CBO estimates. That has meant less spending at stores, restaurants, and likely reduced holiday travel. Large purchases will probably be postponed, slowing the broader economy.

Trump had threatened during the shutdown to not provide back pay but the deal struck in Congress would replace those lost wages once the government reopens.

The shutdown has added to the Washington, D.C. area’s economic woes, where the unemployment rate was already 6% before the shutdown, after Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce this spring caused job losses. While the Washington, D.C. area — including the nearby suburbs in Virginia and Maryland — has the highest concentration of federal workers, most live and work outside of the nation’s capital.

Federal workers make up about 5.5% of Maryland’s workforce, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. But they also comprise 2.9% of New Mexico’s workers, 2.6% of Oklahoma’s, and 3.8% of Alaska’s.

Then there are the federal contractors. Bernard Yaros, an economist at Oxford Economics, estimates they could total as many as 5.2 million, and they are not guaranteed back pay once the shutdown ends.

Flight disruptions

Airlines scrapped more than 2,000 flights by Monday evening after canceling 5,500 since Friday on orders from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is seeking to reduce the burden on overworked air traffic controllers, who have now missed two paychecks.

Even before the flight cancellations, Tourism Economics, an economic consulting firm, estimated that the shutdown would reduce travel spending by $63 million a day, which means a six-week standoff would cost the travel industry $2.6 billion.

The canceled flights also mean less business for hotels, restaurants, and taxi drivers. And federal employees have already pulled the plug on upcoming trips, according to Tourism Economics, which may not be able to be rescheduled even when the government does reopen.

Consumer sentiment

The shutdown has worsened Americans’ outlook on the broader economy. Declining consumer sentiment can over time reduce spending and slow growth, though in recent years Americans have kept shopping even when their outlooks turned grim.

Consumer sentiment dropped to a three-year low and close to the lowest point ever recorded in a survey by the University of Michigan, reported Friday, with pessimism over personal finances and anticipated business conditions weighing on Americans.

The November survey showed the index of consumer sentiment at 50.4, down a startling 6.2% from last month and a plunge of nearly 30% from a year ago.

Federal spending

While the shutdown hasn’t cut off all federal government spending, it has reduced purchases of equipment and has cut off the issuance of new contracts.

Yaros estimates that about $800 million in new contracts were at risk of not being awarded each day of the shutdown.

“The federal award spigot has all but turned off at the Department of Defense, NASA, and the Department of Homeland Security,” Yaros wrote.

SNAP benefits

The shutdown delayed the payment of $8 billion in monthly SNAP food aid to 42 million recipients in November, creating a significant financial disruption for many households that likely reduced spending. Some states have managed to pay full benefits for this month, though the Trump administration is still fighting over the issue in court.

The deal currently under consideration in Congress to reopen the government includes full funding of SNAP benefits.

Interest rate cuts

The government shutdown cut off the flow of economic data on unemployment, inflation, and retail spending that the Federal Reserve depends on to monitor the economy’s health. Even as the government reopens, some of that data will still be delayed. As a result, the Fed may not deliver a third interest rate cut at its December meeting, which was widely expected before the shutdown.

“What do you do if you’re driving in the fog? You slow down,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference late last month.

Powell said the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee is deeply divided over whether to reduce its key rate, partly because the economy’s health is unusually cloudy right now. The government has missed two monthly jobs reports and the October inflation data, scheduled to be published Thursday, will likely never be issued.

Powell said a rate cut in December was not a “foregone conclusion” and added that the lack of data could contribute to a decision by the Fed to skip a rate cut at its next meeting December 9-10. Fewer rate cuts could discourage borrowing and spending and weigh on the economy in the coming months.

Top diplomats from G7 countries meet in Canada as trade tensions rise with Trump

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By ROB GILLIES and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

TORONTO (AP) — Top diplomats from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies are converging on southern Ontario as tensions rise between the U.S. and traditional allies like Canada over defense spending, trade and uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan in Gaza and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

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Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said in an interview with The Associated Press that “the relationship has to continue across a range of issues” despite trade pressures as she prepared to host U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Anand also invited the foreign ministers of Australia, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, South Korea, South Africa and Ukraine.

She said “15 foreign ministers are coming from around the world to the Great White North and funnily enough on the week of our first large snowfall.”

“The work that Canada is doing is continuing to lead multilaterally in an era of a greater movement to protectionism and unilateralism,” Anand said. “And in an era of economic and geopolitical volatility.”

Canada’s G7 hosting duties this year have been marked by strained relations with its North American neighbor, predominantly over Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian imports. But the entire bloc of allies is confronting major turbulence over the Republican president’s demands on trade and various proposals to halt worldwide conflicts.

One main point of contention has been defense spending. All G7 members except for Japan are members of NATO, and Trump has demanded that the alliance partners spend 5% of their annual gross domestic product on defense. While a number of countries have agreed, others have not. Among the G7 NATO members, Canada and Italy are furthest from that goal.

There have also been G7 disagreements over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with Britain, Canada and France announcing they would recognize a Palestinian state even without a resolution to the conflict. With the Russia-Ukraine war, most G7 members have taken a tougher line on Russia than Trump has.

The two-day meeting in Niagara-on-the-Lake on Lake Ontario near the U.S. border comes after Trump ended trade talks with Canada because the Ontario provincial government ran an anti-tariff advertisement in the U.S. that upset him. That followed a spring of acrimony, since abated, over Trump’s insistence that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney apologized for the ad and said last week that he’s ready to resume trade talks when the Americans are ready.

“The work that we are doing in the G7 is about finding areas where we can cooperate multilaterally,” Anand said. “This conversation will continue regardless of other efforts that we are making on the trade side.”

Anand said she will have a meeting with Rubio but noted that a different minister leads the U.S. trade file. The U.S. president has placed greater priority on addressing his grievances with other nations’ trade policies than on collaboration with G7 allies.

“Every complex relationship has numerous touch points,” Anand said. “On the trade file, there is continued work to be done — just as there is work to be done on the numerous touch points outside the trade file, and that’s where Secretary Rubio and I come in because the relationship has to continue across a range of issues.”

Anand said Rubio asked her during a breakfast meeting in Washington last month to play a role in bringing countries to the table to ensure that Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan has longevity.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stands with Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys, not shown, at the State Department, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

U.S. officials said Rubio, who also may have meetings with other G7 counterparts and at least one of the invited non-G7 foreign ministers, would be focused on initiatives to halt fighting in Ukraine and Gaza, maritime security, Haiti, Sudan, supply chain resiliency and critical minerals.

Canada’s priorities include ending the war in Ukraine, Arctic security and security in Haiti. There will be a working lunch on energy and critical minerals that are needed for anything from smartphones to fighter jets. Canada has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.

Anand will probably try to use the meeting to improve the working relationship with Rubio, said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.

“Yet, a key factor shaping that relationship is beyond her control: President Trump’s mercurial behavior,” Béland said.

“The expectations are quite low, but avoiding drama and fostering basic common ground on issues like Ukraine and Russia would be helpful,” Béland said.

Today in History: November 11, ‘Typhoid Mary’ dies

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Today is Tuesday, Nov. 11, the 315th day of 2025. There are 50 days left in the year. Today is Veterans Day.

Today in history:

On Nov. 11,1938, Irish-born cook Mary Mallon, who’d gained notoriety as the disease-carrying “Typhoid Mary” blamed for the deaths of three people, died on North Brother Island in New York’s East River at age 69 after 23 years of mandatory quarantine.

Also on this date:

In 1620, 41 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed the Mayflower Compact, creating a local government for the colony that called for a “civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation.”

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In 1918, fighting in World War I ended as the Allies and Germany signed an armistice aboard a railroad car in the Forest of Compiègne (kohm-PYEHN’-yeh) in northern France.

In 1921, the remains of an unidentified American service member were interred in a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in a ceremony presided over by President Warren G. Harding.

In 1966, Gemini 12 blasted off on a four-day mission with astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. aboard; it was the 10th and final crewed flight of NASA’s Gemini program.

In 1987, following the failure of two Supreme Court nominations, President Ronald Reagan announced his choice of Judge Anthony M. Kennedy, who went on to win confirmation.

In 2020, Georgia’s secretary of state announced an audit of presidential election results that he said would be done with a full hand count of ballots because the margin was so tight; Democratic President-elect Joe Biden led Republican President Donald Trump by about 14,000 votes out of nearly 5 million votes counted in the state. (The audit would affirm Biden’s win.)

In 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange platform filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid a collapse of its assets; Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 of seven counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Today’s Birthdays:

Music producer Mutt Lange is 77.
Actor Stanley Tucci is 65.
Actor Demi Moore is 63.
Actor Calista Flockhart is 61.
TV personality Carson Kressley is 56.
Actor David DeLuise is 54.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is 51.
Musician Jon Batiste is 39.
Retired American figure skater Adam Rippon is 36.
Actor Tye Sheridan is 29.