While the Federal Aviation Administration began reducing air traffic at 40 top airports across the country Friday morning, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport seemed mostly unscathed, much to the pleasant surprise of early-morning travelers.

Armstrong was not included in the list of airports to face the cuts, and travelers arriving Friday morning were greeted with zero wait times at TSA and few delays showing up on the flight information display boards. Across the country, 1,686 flights have been delayed and another 850 canceled, according to FlightAware .

Even during the morning rush hour, Armstrong employees described the foot traffic as nothing more than business as usual.

"[The reductions] scared the hell out of us yesterday," said traveler Chuck Sakmann, 71, of Ba

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