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

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