FAA prohibits most private jets at 12 major airports amid shutdown

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A Gulfstream G-IV private jet flies past clouds at sunset on approach to Washington's Reagan National Airport on June 12, 2024, in Arlington, Virginia.

J. David Ake | Getty Images

The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday will "effectively prohibit business aviation" at a dozen major U.S. airports, adding to flight restrictions for commercial airlines as air traffic controller shortages snarl travel in the government shutdown, a trade group said.

Last week, the Trump administration ordered U.S. commercial airlines to cut their schedules to ease strains on air traffic controllers who are working without their regular paychecks in the shutdown. Government officials at first didn't curb private flights the same way they did for commercial aviation, though the air traffic controller staffing shortages have slowed travel broadly.

The first commercial airline flight cuts of 4% went into affect on Friday and are set to rise to 10% of flights by this coming Friday.

More than 4,500 commercial flights were canceled over the weekend and over 17,000 were delayed as staffing shortages worsened around the country, according to FlightAware. Aviation industry members applauded the Senate's progress toward ending the shutdown late Sunday, though a solution for the longest-ever such impasse hasn't been finalized.

"Safety is the cornerstone of business aviation, and NBAA is fully committed to ensuring the safety of the NAS," said National Business Aviation Association President and CEO Ed Bolen in a statement late Sunday. "Among the ways we will do that is to ensure business aviation operators have an understanding of these restrictions and their implications."

Most business jet operators don't use the busiest commercial airports, said the NBAA.

The FAA didn't immediately comment.

Here are the airports included in the new restrictions, according to the NBAA: