Travelers check their flight status at Dulles International airport as the nation's air travel system begins to return to normal, as the U.S. government opens back up following the longest shutdown in U.S. history, in Dulles, Virginia, U.S. November 13, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. airlines have cut far fewer flights for Friday than the requirement that they cut 6% of domestic flights at the 40 busiest American airports, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium and airline officials.

The Federal Aviation Administration late on Wednesday said it would freeze mandatory flight cuts at 6%, and would not hike cancellation requirements as previously announced. Cirium said that after cancelling around 3.5% of total flights on Wednesday and Thursday, airlines have canceled just 1.4% for Friday.

Airlines could still add cancellations and the FAA could revise the order. United Airlines said it had canceled 134 flights for Friday, or almost 3% of its flights, after cancelling 222 flights on Thursday.

The FAA did not immediately comment.

Other airlines told Reuters on condition of anonymity they were not planning to cut 6% of flights on Friday. Before the FAA revised its order, airlines had been expected to cancel 8% of domestic flights on Thursday and 10% of flights at the 40 busiest airports.

The FAA on Wednesday opted to ease those cancellations after disruptions due to air traffic control absences declined dramatically in recent days just ahead of Congress giving final approval to a deal to reopen the government that was quickly signed into law by President Donald Trump.

"The 6% hold will remain in place as the FAA continues to assess whether the system can gradually return to normal operations," the agency said on Wednesday.

Airlines canceled 1,020 flights on Thursday under the FAA's 6% requirement, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. Cirium said carriers by 4:20 p.m. ET had only canceled 371 flights for Friday.

The FAA said on Thursday it was reporting staffing issues at Reagan Washington National and Newark airports, which were resulting in delays at both airports, but there were far fewer issues than before the government reopening.

The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels. Many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown led to them working without pay.

Flight operations are improving, with just 3,000 delays on Thursday compared with 4,000 on Tuesday and nearly 10,000 on Monday, according to FlightAware.

Air traffic absences have led to tens of thousands of flight cancellations and delays since October 1, when the 43-day shutdown began.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler, Rod Nickel)