What Is Ahead for Air Travel
November 11, 2025
The friendly skies United Airlines use to talk about in their ads for years are way behind us now.
The government shutdown may be coming to an end, but there are signs that there will be lingering effects on Thanksgiving travel and beyond.
The head of the Air Traffic Controllers union puts it this way:
"This is one of the worlds where this shutdown isn't a light switch. It's not just on and it's not just off. “We'll have to continue dealing with the fallouts and what this added stress and pressure to this has caused.”
He says a number of controllers have decided to resign over the last few weeks and he says the number is growing. They apparently have had it.
And the U.S Transportation Secretary suggests it could take a number of days yet and even possibly a few weeks before air travel is back to normal.
But with there already having been a shortage of air traffic controllers before the shutdown and those DOGE cutbacks earlier this year, some airline observers suggest travelers could be facing not so friendly skies for some time yet.
(Photo Getty Images)