After a week and a half of flight cancellations across the Bay Area, the skyways are returning to normal after the Federal Aviation Administration lifted its flight reductions beginning Monday morning.
The FAA announced Sunday that it was lifting its previous mandate that air traffic be reduced by 10% due to air traffic controller fatigue, citing a safety review and “steady decline of staffing-trigger events in air traffic control facilities,” according to a statement from the agency. Operations returned to normal on Monday at 6 a.m.
The air traffic reduction, which began Nov. 7, largely impacted 40 high-traffic airports across the country, including San Francisco International Airport and Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport. As the reductions went on, the impacts trickled to San Jose Mineta International Airport as well, which saw flight cancellations after incoming flights from other airports were canceled.
At SFO Monday, flight traffic was “returning to more normal numbers,” said Doug Yakel, airport spokesperson. As of Monday afternoon, the airport had seen only three cancellations, which is “very typical, especially on a rainy day.”
The airport also had 145 delays — impacting about 12% of flights — but Yakel attributed those to the weather. Delays were averaging about 16 minutes.
OAK experienced no cancellations both Sunday and Monday, said Kaley Skantz, public information officer for the Oakland airport. The airport also had “very few delays to report.”
“Operations at Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport are running smoothly today,” Skantz said.
At SJC, there were no flight cancellations Monday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.
“While SJC experienced minimal disruption during the FAA’s temporary flight-reduction order, we’re pleased it has now been lifted and operations are fully back to normal,” said Julie Jarratt, public information manager for SJC. “We are grateful to our federal partners — especially TSA and FAA staff — whose dedication kept passengers safe and supported throughout the shutdown.”
Comparatively, on the first day of flight reductions, SFO had 90 canceled flights and OAK saw around a dozen cancellations.
Airlines, too, reaffirmed the return to normalcy Monday, with many reassuring travelers that Thanksgiving travel is set to go smoothly.
Chris Perry, spokesperson for Southwest Airlines, said that the airline operated with a full schedule Monday.
“We look forward to taking our customers where they want to go for the holidays,” Perry said.
Erik Snell, chief customer experience officer for Delta, said in a statement Saturday that the airline is prepared for next week’s holiday travel.
“Rest assured, our operations are running normally, and Delta people remain dedicated to safely delivering the premium, reliable experiences you expect – the same qualities that carried us through even the most challenging times, including the longest government shutdown in history,” he said.
United Airlines has also returned to its full flight capacity, the airline’s CEO Scott Kirby wrote on LinkedIn.
“Thank you to our customers for your patience as all airlines worked through these recent reductions,” he said.
The flight reductions were attributed to air traffic controller fatigue during the government shutdown, as staffers worked unpaid — with many working mandatory overtime — for more than a month. Staffing shortages at airports across the country resulted in delays as controllers called out of work due to frustration or took on second jobs to make ends meet.
The government shutdown ended last week after a record 43 days when President Donald Trump signed a funding bill.
“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,” Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in a statement. “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.”