Nearly 75 flights canceled at Sacramento International Airport amid shutdown
Sacramento International Airport travelers faced the worst wave of flight cancellations Sunday, with 34 flights canceled that day, amid the ongoing federal government shutdown. In all, nearly 75 have been canceled since Friday.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had ordered flights to be gradually reduced by 10% starting Friday at 40 of the busiest U.S. airports, which included several California airports but not SMF.
The move was a safety precaution, Duffy said. Staffing shortages have plagued airports, most troublingly among air traffic controllers who have been reporting to work without pay since shutdown began Oct. 1. Although Sacramento’s airport is not one of the airports on Duffy’s list, all but one of the canceled Sacramento flights were headed to or coming from airports that had seen flights cut.
One flight to the Long Beach Municipal Airport was canceled Sunday — a small facility which is not one of the 40 directly affected by the order.
A total of 57 Sacramento flights that were scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday were axed. Data from online flight tracking service FlightAware showed that on Friday, seven departing flights and five arrivals were canceled — a total of 12 flights. That number dipped slightly on Saturday: five departures and six arrivals were canceled, or 11 flights. On Sunday, 18 departures and 16 arrivals were canceled.
On Sunday, 14 of the canceled flights were to or from San Diego International Airport — one of the 40 with ramp-down orders from Duffy.
Between Friday and Sunday, 16 flights to or from San Diego were canceled, along with 10 flights to or from Los Angeles International; eight flights to or from San Francisco International Airport; and five to or from Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. Four flights to or from Las Vegas were also taken off the schedule. All other routes had three or fewer flights canceled over the three days.
By mid-day Monday, 15 flights had already been canceled, according to FlightAware.
The federal government shutdown began after Republicans and Democrats reached an impasse over a new budget deal in September. Democrats had demanded that the budget include continuing health insurance subsidies that make Affordable Care Act plans affordable for millions of Americans. This week, after many federal workers went without pay for more than a month, Democrats said they would accept a temporary deal that did not include those subsidies. That deal has not yet been finalized in the House, which could take up the continuing resolution as early as Wednesday, according to Bee reporting.
The majority of Sacramento cancellations involved the commuter airline SkyWest, which flies regional flights on behalf of Delta, American and Alaska airlines. The company emailed a statement that said, “We are working closely with each of our mainline partners to minimize customer disruption as we implement the FAA-mandated flight reductions. All planned cancellations are being managed days in advance and SkyWest is continuing to operate the vast majority of our flights.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2025 at 12:46 PM.
