New York airports see delays, cancellations even as government reopens

If you plan to fly this week, you might still experience delays.

Although President Donald Trump signed a funding bill to end the longest government shutdown on Wednesday night, officials said air traffic may take a while to return to normal. The Federal Aviation Administration said flight reductions would remain at 6% rather than rise to 10% by Friday at 40 major airports, including the metropolitan area's major airports. 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced the new emergency order freezing flight reductions on Wednesday, following a recommendation from the agency’s safety team.

"Our top priority at the FAA is and always will be safety," Bedford said in a statement. "The data shows that controller staffing is improving rapidly, which allows us to hold flight reductions at six percent while maintaining the highest levels of safety in our airspace. We’ll continue to monitor system performance hour by hour and we won’t hesitate to make further adjustments if needed."

They did not provide a timeline for when flight cuts would end.

As of 6 p.m. Thursday, at Kennedy Airport, 134 flights were delayed and 39 flights had been canceled, according the flight tracking site FlightAware. At LaGuardia, there were 350 delayed flights and 38 canceled and Long Island MacArthur Airport had 6 delays and no cancellations, according to FlightAware.

Since the beginning of the shutdown, controllers have been working without pay, missing two paychecks. Flight cuts were implemented last week as more air traffic controllers were calling out of work, citing stress and the need to take on second jobs, The Associated Press reported.

More than 10,100 flights have been canceled since the cuts, according to FlightAware.