Airline CEOs pressure Congress to pass funding bill as flight disruptions mount-awdailynews

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2025-11-01

Airline CEOs pressure Congress to pass funding bill as flight disruptions mount

If you are flying anytime soon, you may need to be prepared for some turbulence.

The government shutdown — entering its 31st day on Friday — continues to have a negative impact on the travel industry due to staff shortages.

On Thursday, 7,250 flights were delayed and 1,249 were canceled across the country, according to FlightAware data, per reports. The disruptions continued into Friday with at least 787 flights delayed and 242 canceled as of 9 a.m. ET.

Airline stocks dropped on Thursday but recovered early Friday following an event hosted by Vice President Vance at the White House, where airline executives, including United (UAL) CEO Scott Kirby and American Airlines (AAL) CEO Robert Isom, sought a resolution to end airport staff shortages.

“It’s putting stress on people [air traffic controllers, TSA workers]. It’s not fair to those people. It’s also putting stress on the economy … and we’ve started to see, still minor, but steep booking impact, and you see that happening in the whole economy,” Kirby said at the event. “And while I don’t have a position on which partisan side and how things should be settled on healthcare, it’s been 30 days. I also think it is time to pass a clean CR [continuing resolution].”

Prior to Thursday’s disruptions, Kirby said that only 2% of flights were delayed.

Air traffic controllers became the latest group of federal workers to go without pay, missing their first full paycheck on Tuesday as flight interruptions picked up

“A lot of our [air travel workers] can go through the miss of one paycheck — and it’s hard for them … none of them can get through two paychecks,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at the White House event.

Peacemakers? United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, left, and American Airlines CEO Robert Isom listen as Vice President JD Vance speaks to reporters outside the White House on Oct. 30, 2025. Kirby, Isom, and other members of the airline industry joined Vance and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for a roundtable discussion on the impacts of the government shutdown. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) · Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images

While the airlines and the White House keep trying to apply pressure to Democrats to pass a clean resolution, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and leadership view their position to open the government as leverage to secure subsidies for healthcare for millions of Americans. Saturday is the beginning of open enrollment for healthcare programs run by Affordable Care Act exchanges, aka Obamacare. Democrats are looking to extend enhanced government subsidies for those plans. That’s because without subsidies, premiums are set to double for most people.

“The open enrollment period is beginning on Saturday, and tragically, the Republicans have won their battle to increase healthcare costs on the American people,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), a member of the Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over health insurance tax subsidies. “Now we know that the American people’s healthcare costs are going to go up because the Republican Party in Washington is refusing to extend the ObamaCare tax credits.”