Shutdown has ended — does that mean South Florida airports are back to normal?

Flight cancellations at South Florida’s two major airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale shouldn’t worsen in coming days after the federal government ended a 44-day shutdown. But don’t expect flights to instantly return to a normal schedule.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford scrapped their earlier emergency order that took effect Nov. 7 that had called for gradual reductions in departures, eventually reaching 10% of domestic flights by Nov. 14.

The decision to phase in flight cutbacks was made after “seeing signs of stress in the system,” Bedford said, including a strain on air traffic controllers who had been working without pay.

But late Wednesday night, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives approved a bill that would reopen the government, following the Senate’s approval, and President Donald Trump then signed it

The original FAA order called for a 8% reduction by Thursday, Nov. 13. That was an increase from the 6% figure required by Nov. 11.

Now, the FAA will keep cutbacks at 6% as the system works to return to normal schedules.

The aviation agency is issuing “a new emergency order freezing flight reductions at the current six percent level following a recommendation from the agency’s safety team,” Bedford said in a statement on Wednesday.

That level of number of flights “will remain in place as the FAA continues to assess whether the system can gradually return to normal operations,” Bedford noted.

The 40 high-impact airports covered by the cutback order includes MIA, FLL, as well as Tampa and Orlando.

The Department of Transportation and FAA noted that more and more air traffic controllers are now back to work.

“There has been a rapid decline in controller callouts, with only 11 staffing triggers on Tuesday, November 11, and four staffing triggers today from a high of 81 on November 8,” the statement said. “Such strong staffing levels suggest a further ramp up in-flight reductions are not necessary to keep the traveling public safe.”

As of 4:30 p.m. Thursday, MIA had eight cancellations out of 317 domestic departures, or 2.5%, according to Greg Chin, communications director for the Miami-Dade Aviation Department.

MIA fares even better from aviation analytics firm Cirium, which includes international departures. As of 4:30 p.m. Thursday, eight flights out of 530 were canceled, or 1.5%, according its data sent to the Miami Herald. That was the lowest cancellation rate among 21 airports Cirium surveyed.

FLL saw 18 flight cancellations as of 4:30 p.m. Thursday due to the FAA flight reduction initiative, said Arlene Satchell, an airport spokesperson. The airport didn’t provide additional data.

Nationwide on Thursday afternoon, 905 scheduled departures were canceled across U.S. airports, about 3.5%, according to Cirium. To give some perspective, since January 2024, the 12th worst day for cancellations had more than twice that figure, 1,930, according to Cirium.

Still, airlines were tested the past 44 days.

American Airlines, which accounts for the most number of passengers at MIA, said in a letter to employees on Thursday by Chief Executive Officer Robert Isom and Chief Operating Officer David Seymour that the weeks since the government shut down were “an incredibly challenging time for our airline and the industry as a whole.”

Now, “air traffic control staffing has begun to stabilize over the last day or so, and we’ve already seen that materialize in our operation.”

The executives cautioned that “it may take a few days for fully normal controller operations to resume,” and in that time, American, like other airlines, may have to continue with reduced schedules. But “we will recover quickly and deliver a strong Thanksgiving operation.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 1:34 PM.