In 2001, they grounded almost all air traffic for about three days. It would take take a while for this move to catch up to that.

That would be the COVID shutdown.

Yes, there's a well-established historical basis through Ground Delay Programs (GDP). The FAA uses "Ration-by-Schedule" delays are allocated based on your scheduled arrival time with adjustments for airline equity.

Flight selection: It affects flights already in the system (filed flight plans), not future bookings. The scope is defined geographically all flights within X miles or specific air traffic control centers get hit proportionally. There's no inherent bias toward domestic vs international; if you're in scope, you're in scope.

What "cut" means: They reduce the Airport Acceptance Rate (AAR) the number of aircraft the airport can handle per hour. So instead of 60 arrivals/hour, maybe it's 54. Your flight gets assigned an Expect Departure Clearance Time (EDCT) basically "don't take off until this specific time" to meter the arrivals.

The system prioritizes keeping planes on the ground rather than having them circle the destination airport burning fuel. Late-filing flights (cargo, charters) get assigned the average program delay first, then compete for any remaining slots.

So if you filed a flight plan to LaGuardia and there's a 10% cut, you're getting a controlled departure time calculated by the Flight Schedule Monitor software based on your original schedule, airline equity, and current delays.

Of course, that assumes that this won't be politicked. I would not at all be surprised to see them kneecap NYC, Chicago and any other cities that are doing something the current white house doesn't like.

The sibling comment has a more structured reply to the whole process, but of note the article specifically mentions the FAA has exempted international flights.

Airlines would pay them all personally if they were permitted.

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I’m not positive how this will be implemented but typically airport authorities work with airlines on this subject. The airport authority will likely tell airlines instead of 50 aircraft per hour we can only handle 45 and leave it to the airline to determine where to cut. The result is likely to be the same as what you’ve indicated. Airlines are not going to slash their most profitable routes so the reductions will almost certainly be smaller markets.

I have travel scheduled next week and I fear what this might do to my itinerary. Really hoping the Govt sorts itself out before then but there’s been almost no indication that is going to happen.