Airlines Optimistic About Quick Recovery

Airlines are optimistic they can resume normal operations within a few days once the government lifts its order to cut some flights at 40 busy airports. It’s not clear how quickly that will happen even though the government shutdown is over. The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday night that airlines won’t have to cut more than 6% of flights at the affected airports because air traffic controller staffing has improved significantly. Originally the order called for flight cuts to increase to 8% Thursday and top out at 10% Friday. By late Thursday afternoon, only a little over 1,000 flights had been cancelled across the country.