The FAA’s flight reduction emergency order has been terminated. This means normal operations can resume across the National Airspace System (NAS).
Emergency Order Terminated
According to the press release, the safety team recommended the termination of the order following their detailed reviews of safety trends. In addition, the steady decline of staffing-trigger events in air traffic control facilities also led to the termination.
“I want to thank the FAA’s dedicated safety team for keeping our skies secure during the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history and the country’s patience for putting safety first. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, controllers have returned to their posts and normal operations can resume,” said Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “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.”
The 10% reduction began on Friday, November 7, and affected 40 airports in the United States. Orlando International Airport was one of those airports affected, and at one point, over 700 flights were canceled.
Staffing levels have continued to jump back to pre-shutdown levels. The positive trend line continued this past weekend, with six staffing triggers on Friday, November 14, eight on Saturday, November 15, and only one staffing trigger on Sunday, November 16. That’s in contrast to a record high of 81 staffing triggers on November 8. The current data aligns with staffing conditions before the shutdown.
The following restrictions have also ended:
- 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 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time
- Limits on parachute operations and photo missions near facilities with staffing triggers
Orlando International Airport sent out the following, letting guests know that it may take some additional time for regular services to resume in the coming weeks:
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