Flight cuts began hitting the Orlando International Airport on Friday as part of a nationwide slowdown that aims to ease the government shutdown’s strain on air traffic controllers.
Though the airport functioned without major disruptions during the morning and afternoon, travel woes are expected to worsen as the record-breaking shutdown drags into its second month. That’s raised fears about worse snarls at the nation’s ninth busiest airport during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a 4% reduction in air traffic at Orlando and 39 other “high-volume” airports starting Friday, an extraordinary step the agency said it took to relieve pressure on controllers who, like other federal employees, are working without pay. Those cutbacks will ramp up to 10% by Nov. 14, according to the FAA’s emergency order.
Anthony Harrell, 58, quickly felt the impact of the FAA’s decision as his direct flight home to Indianapolis was canceled. He was rebooked on another flight for the same day but with a layover in Baltimore.
Harrell said the shutdown is hurting everyone — from travelers making plans for Thanksgiving to his friends and family working without pay for the government.
“It’s going to be a lot of flights canceled,” said Harrell, who was coming back from a cruise. “There will be more people probably going on the bus, train or getting rental cars and driving where they want to go. Especially, it’s going to affect tourism in Orlando.”
Visit Orlando, the region’s tourism marketing organization, has raised the same concerns. “Ease of accessibility to our destination is critically important,” the group’s CEO Casandra Matej said in a statement, adding that the U.S. travel industry could lose $1 billion each week the government is shutdown.
The airport’s departure list showed canceled flights to Boston, Miami, New York, Newark and Austin, Texas.
As of 2 p.m. Friday, about 29 flights had been canceled and 119 were delayed, according to FlightAware. The airport has about 1,000 flights on a typical day. Airports nationwide also reported some cancellations but no major travel breakdowns.
A TSA officer assists passengers at the security checkpoint at Orlando International Airport on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel
Many Orlando travelers Friday were relieved their flights weren’t affected.
David Webb, 73, was traveling from Orlando to Puerto Rico for a two-week cruise. He is from England and owns a vacation home in Port Charlotte, south of Tampa. He said he hopes the shutdown is resolved by the time his cruise ends, joking he’ll find a ship back to Florida if he has to.
“There will be a way,” Webb said. “If they delay it a couple of days, it’s not the end of world.”
The FAA’s list of affected airports includes major hubs in Atlanta, Charlotte, New York City and Washington, D.C.
Orlando airport officials are encouraging travelers to monitor the situation.
“The reduction in flights is likely to impact passengers, unfortunately, and we ask that they check directly with their airlines regarding delays and cancellations,” said Angela Starke, a spokeswoman for the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which oversees the Orlando airport. “The airport will be fully staffed to assist as much as possible during this time.”
Harrell said he’s thankful to the air traffic controllers, Transportation Security Administration officers and other federal employees working without pay.
“The economy still has to run, but personally, I wouldn’t be working for free,” he said as he waited for his flight home.