FAA readies to list airports getting reduced flights during the government shutdown

Representatives of New York City's bodegas, grocers, and restaurants said on Wednesday they hope New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani spends less time going after President Donald Trump and focuses on his promises to make the city more affordable.

Mamdani, 34, a democratic socialist, won a hotly contested race that drew nationwide attention. He won over younger voters with his campaign centered around affordability, including promises to freeze rent and raise taxes on the rich. But his proposals raised alarm among the city's business community, worried about reduced economic growth and erosion in its tax base.

In his victory address, Mamdani took aim at Trump, who has threatened to send the U.S. National Guard to the city and step up immigration enforcement.

Frank Marte, president of the Bodegas and Small Business Group in New York City, which represents 3,000 bodegas, hairdressers, and other small businesses, said he fears escalating tensions with Trump could lead to federal retaliation.

"He is speaking about confrontation with Trump, which he won't win. The city or the people of New York will suffer," Marte said.

Some business owners were concerned about his plan to open one city-owned grocery store in each borough to offer residents wholesale prices.

"The government does not know how to run a store," said David Schwartz, director of the New York Association of Grocery Stores, noting challenges in hiring workers and catering to customer preferences.

Mamdani's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Early in his campaign, Mamdani posted a popular video on social media arguing the city is suffering from "Halalflation," with the high cost of food ingredients forcing the owners of the city's ubiquitous food trucks to charge more for items like chicken over rice.

Hakki Akdeniz, the owner of steakhouse Essex NYC and more than 20 other restaurants, said he hoped Mamdani would prioritize homelessness and the hungry, noting his own experience as “a homeless immigrant who came to New York without knowing any English.”

Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, which represents restaurants and nightlife establishments, asked Mamdani to focus on improving affordability by involving small business experts, cutting red tape, and reducing fines.

John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of New York supermarket chains Gristedes and D'Agostino, told Reuters he plans to "lighten" about 20% to 25% of his $1 billion real estate holdings in the city after Mamdani's win, including selling many Gristedes stores and other properties.

"As a New Yorker for 70 years, I am very concerned that socialism will take over," he said.

Keith McNally, owner of Balthazar, a French brasserie in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, praised Mamdani in an Instagram post, saying he would “happily pay more taxes so all the people in New York can afford to live here and have a decent, healthy life.”

UPS (UPS.N), opens new tab said on Wednesday it would reopen its sprawling air cargo hub in Louisville, Kentucky, after temporarily shuttering it a day earlier due to a deadly plane crash, a move that will begin easing delays in the delivery firm's global network.

The Worldport hub processes millions of packages for roughly 360 incoming and outbound aircraft each day, giving it a critical role in the UPS air cargo operation's hub-and-spoke model.

"Our goal is to begin returning the network to a normal cadence with flights arriving at destinations Thursday morning," UPS spokesperson Jim Mayer said.

The company stopped Worldport operations on Tuesday night after a UPS cargo plane bound for Honolulu crashed just after takeoff at Louisville International Airport, killing at least 12 people, including three flight crew members, according to local officials.

UPS early on Wednesday also canceled the mid-morning to mid-afternoon shift at the 5.2-million-square-foot (483,096-square-meter) facility that is roughly the size of 89 U.S. football fields and can process 416,000 packages per hour.

In a service alert on Tuesday, UPS said scheduled delivery times for air and international packages may be affected and that it had contingency plans in place to help limit disruption. Customer alerts seen by Reuters on Wednesday showed packages stalled at UPS regional hubs like Ontario, California, and Rockford, Illinois.

Because many UPS packages pass through Worldport on their way to other destinations, there will be inevitable delays and disruptions for UPS customers, said Niall van de Wouw, chief airfreight officer at transportation pricing platform Xeneta.

"For every day of closure, it could take several days for air cargo to recover, especially as we are now heading towards year-end peak season," he said, referring to the upcoming winter holiday rush for air cargo shipments.

He said he expected limited impact on wider air cargo services and freight rates.

UPS shares closed down 0.3% at $92.91 on Wednesday.

UPS DELAYS WILL BE FAR-REACHING

Any UPS delays will be far-reaching since its customers for delivery and return services include a broad swath of U.S. businesses and agencies.

UPS since September 2024 has been the No. 1 air cargo service provider for the U.S. Postal Service, transporting Priority and other speedy mail products.

The USPS is working closely with UPS to assess the duration of the impact of volume moving under the contract, a postal service spokesperson said.

Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab is the largest customer at UPS, which also delivers parcels for Walmart and Target (TGT.N), opens new tab, as well as for manufacturers and businesses.

Beyond that, more than 150 UPS customers, including major pharmaceutical companies like Merck & Co (MRK.N), opens new tab, also have inventory at Worldport.

UPS customers mentioned above did not immediately comment on potential delays.

Florida-based contact lens seller ABB Optical Group said on Wednesday it warned customers that some of its shipments could be delayed due to the UPS accident "out of an abundance of caution and transparency."

The delivery firm can divert some packages bound for Worldport to other regional and international hubs, said Satish Jindel, founder of shipping consultancy ShipMatrix.

FlightAware showed UPS planes flying between U.S. hubs in what appeared to be an effort to bypass Worldport. There were Honolulu and Philadelphia flights to Ontario, California, while flights from Ontario were destined for Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Philadelphia.

UPS has a large international operation with customs capabilities in Philadelphia, Jindel said. FlightAware showed UPS planes flying from that airport to Cologne in Germany, Paris, and the UK.

Those workarounds will likely slow packages, Jindel said.

"Facilities were never designed to replace Louisville," Jindel said.

FlightAware data late on Wednesday showed 10 aircraft flying into the Louisville airport from destinations including London, Philadelphia, Anchorage, Alaska, and Palm Beach, Florida. A UPS cargo plane that departed from Louisville is scheduled to arrive in Cologne on Thursday morning.

 Travelers through some of the busiest U.S. airports can expect to learn Thursday whether they’ll see fewer flights as the government shutdown drags into a second month.

The Federal Aviation Administration will announce the “high-volume markets” where it is reducing flights by 10% before the cuts go into effect Friday, said agency administrator Bryan Bedford. The move is intended to keep the airspace safe during the shutdown, the agency said.

Experts predict hundreds, if not thousands, of flights could be canceled.

“I’m not aware in my 35-year history in the aviation market where we’ve had a situation where we’re taking these kinds of measures,” Bedford said Wednesday. “We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns.”

Air traffic controllers have been working unpaid since the shutdown began Oct. 1. Most work mandatory overtime six days a week, leaving little time for side jobs to help cover bills and other expenses unless they call out.

Mounting staffing pressures are forcing the agency to act, Bedford said Wednesday at a news conference.

“We can’t ignore it,” he said, adding that even if the shutdown ends before Friday, the FAA wouldn’t automatically resume normal operations until staffing improves and stabilizes.

Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declined during the news conference to name the cities and airports where they will slow air traffic, saying they wanted to first meet with airline executives to figure out how to safely implement the reductions.

Major airlines, aviation unions, and the broader travel industry have been urging Congress to end the shutdown, which on Wednesday became the longest on record.

The shutdown is putting unnecessary strain on the system and “forcing difficult operational decisions that disrupt travel and damage confidence in the U.S. air travel experience,” said U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman in a statement.

Duffy warned on Tuesday that there could be chaos in the skies if the shutdown drags on long enough for air traffic controllers to miss their second full paycheck next week.

Duffy said some controllers can get by missing one paycheck, but not two or more. And he has said some controllers are even struggling to pay for transportation to work.

Staffing can run short both in regional control centers that manage multiple airports and in individual airport towers, but they don’t always lead to flight disruptions. Throughout October, flight delays caused by staffing problems had been largely isolated and temporary.

But the past weekend brought some of the worst staffing issues since the start of the shutdown.

From Friday to Sunday evening, at least 39 air traffic control facilities reported potential staffing limits, according to an Associated Press analysis of operations plans shared through the Air Traffic Control System Command Center system. The figure, which is likely an undercount, is well above the average for weekends before the shutdown.

During weekends from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, the average number of airport towers, regional control centers, and facilities monitoring traffic at higher altitudes that announced potential staffing issues was 8.3, according to the AP analysis. But during the five weekend periods since the shutdown began, the average more than tripled to 26.2 facilities.