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US senators reach stopgap deal to end government shutdown, raising hopes for end to six-week-long impasse.

Airlines in the United States have cancelled more than 3,300 flights amid a top transport official’s warning that air travel could “slow to a trickle” due to the ongoing government shutdown.

The cancellations on Sunday came as Republicans and Democrats reached a stopgap deal on ending the shutdown after the impasse over the passage of a funding bill dragged into its 40th day.

Travel disruption has been mounting since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)  last week ordered reductions in air traffic amid reports of air traffic controllers exhibiting fatigue and refusing to turn up for work.

Some 13,000 air traffic controllers, who are deemed “essential” employees under US government rules, have been forced to work without pay since the start of the shutdown on October 1.

A total of 3,304 US flights were cancelled and more than 10,000 flights were delayed on Sunday, according to data from flight-tracking website FlightAware.

More than 1,500 flights were cancelled on Saturday, following the cancellation of about 1,000 flights on Friday.

Under the FAA’s phased-in reduction in air traffic, airlines were ordered to reduce domestic flights by 4 percent from 6am Eastern Standard Time (11:00 GMT) on Friday.

Flights are set to be reduced by 6 percent from Monday, 8 percent by Thursday, and 10 percent by Friday.

In media interviews on Sunday, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy warned that air travel could grind to a standstill in the run-up to the Thanksgiving holiday on November 27.

“As we get closer to Thanksgiving travel, I think what’s going to happen is you’re going to have air travel slow to a trickle, as everyone wants to travel to see their families,” Duffy told Fox News.

“It doesn’t get better,” Duffy added. “It gets worse until these air traffic controllers are going to be paid.”

The period around Thanksgiving is one of the busiest times for travel in the US calendar.

An estimated 80 million Americans travelled during the Thanksgiving period in 2024, with airports screening a record 3.09 million passengers on the Sunday after the holiday alone.

As fears of travel chaos mounted on Sunday, US senators said they had reached a compromise agreement to restore funding for government operations through the end of January.

In a late night session, the Senate voted 60-to-40 to break the filibuster and advance the funding package after a group of moderate Democrats joined Republicans to support the resumption of government funding.

The funding plan still needs to be approved by the Senate and the US House of Representatives, and then signed into law by US President Donald Trump, before the shutdown ends.

It is also unclear whether travel disruption could persist after the government reopens.

The FAA said last week that decisions on lifting its flight reductions would be “informed by safety data”.

Al Jazeera has contacted the FAA for comment.

Richard Aboulafia, managing director at the consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said that if air traffic controllers have been skipping work due to pay, the disruptions should quickly dissipate once the shutdown ends.

But there are also suspicions among aviation analysts that the flight restrictions are an “arbitrary” measure designed to raise political pressure for an end to the government shutdown, Aboulafia said.

“The decision to restrict capacity was understandable if the facts and data support it,” Aboulafia told Al Jazeera.

“Secretary Duffy says the data does indeed support it, but he has not shared any of that data. People are right to be suspicious, particularly in light of other unnecessary cuts by the administration.”

Nov. 9 (UPI) — U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Sunday that Thanksgiving air travel would slow considerably.

Amid the continued federal government shutdown and upcoming travel season, he also said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered military reserves of air traffic controllers to help mitigate the shutdown-linked staffing shortage.

As of early Sunday morning, more than 1,100 flights had been canceled, which follows more than 1,500 that were cancelled and 6,4000 that were delayed, ABC reported.

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered airlines to cut flights by 10% by Nov. 14 to mitigate air safety concerns amid the shortage of air traffic controllers.

Duffy said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday” that Hegseth texted him Saturday with the offer, but that he did not know if the air traffic controllers could be deployed.

“But he’ll step in and try to provide some relief in the skies,” Duffy said. “We’re trying to minimize the pain for the American people.”

Duffy said that he anticipated “very few” air traffic controllers showing up for work over the holiday, choosing to be with their families as they continue to work unpaid.

The federal government shutdown that began on Oct. 1 has entered its sixth week, becoming the longest in U.S. history, as lawmakers in Washington remain at an impasse over funding for the new fiscal year.

The stalemate is over expiring healthcare tax credits from the Affordable Care Act. Democrats want to extend these subsidies before reopening the government, while Republicans refuse to discuss policy until a funding bill passes.

The funding lapse has led to the furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal employees and is forcing many others, including military personnel and air traffic controllers, to work without pay. But many air traffic controllers have chosen not to appear for work.

Disruptions have deepened nationwide, including slowdowns at airports, closures of national parks and cultural institutions and growing uncertainty over food assistance programs for millions of Americans.

“I think we have to be honest about where this is going,” Duffy said. “It doesn’t get better, it gets worse until these air traffic controllers are going to be paid.”

Despite some progress in delivering food to Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, the enclave – ravaged by Israeli bombardment and racked by hunger – remains in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations has said.

The UN and its partners have been able to get 37,000 metric tonnes of aid, mostly food, into Gaza since the October 10 ceasefire, but much more is needed, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on Friday.

“Despite significant progress on the humanitarian scale-up, people’s urgent needs are still immense, with impediments not being lifted quickly enough since the ceasefire,” Haq said, citing reports from the UN’s humanitarian service, OCHA.

Haq was critical that entry of humanitarian supplies into Gaza continues to be limited to only two crossings – the al-Karara (also known as Kissufim) and Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossings.

There is no direct access to northern Gaza from Israel or to southern Gaza from Egypt, while NGO staff are being denied access, he said.

Earlier this week, the UN said it had distributed food parcels to one million people in Gaza since the ceasefire, but warned it was still in a race to save lives.

The UN’s World Food Programme stressed all crossing points into the Gaza Strip should be opened to flood the famine-hit territory with aid, adding that no reason was given for why the northern crossings with Israel remained closed.

Palestinians across Gaza continue to face shortages of food, water, medicine and other critical supplies as a result of Israeli restrictions.

Many families also lack adequate shelter as their homes and neighbourhoods have been completely destroyed in Israel’s two-year military bombardment.

Chris Gunness, the former spokesperson for UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency, said Israel is committing a war crime by blocking aid to Gaza.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Gunness noted that tens of thousands of Palestinians – mainly children – remain at risk of malnutrition. He also said that if Israel doesn’t meet its obligation “to flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid”, then third-party countries must act.

“Israel has made it clear that it wants to commit a genocide against the Palestinians, it wants to ethnically cleanse them, and it wants to starve them,” he said.

Captive’s body returned

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, after both sides agreed to a United States-brokered 20-point plan aimed at ending the war. But since it was announced, Israel has repeatedly launched attacks, killing dozens of people, with its forces remaining in more than 50 percent of the territory.

More than 220 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave.

Israel has also been carrying out a wave of demolitions in parts of Gaza under its continued control east of the so-called yellow line, where Israeli forces are stationed.

The latest demolitions on Friday included residential buildings east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera reporters in the Strip.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed Israel received from the Red Cross the remains of one of the last six captives held by Hamas in Gaza.

The Israeli military later confirmed that a coffin containing the deceased captive’s body had “crossed the border into the State of Israel” after being delivered by the Red Cross.

It said the body was being sent to a forensic facility in Tel Aviv for identification.

At the start of the truce, Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, released all 20 surviving captives. In return, Israel freed hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners, including the bodies of slain Palestinians from Gaza, many showing signs of torture.

Of the 28 deceased Israeli captives that Hamas agreed to hand over under the deal, it has so far returned 22 – 19 Israelis, one Thai, one Nepali and one Tanzanian – excluding the latest body.

The last six deceased captives include five seized on October 7, 2023 – four Israelis and one Thai – as well as the remains of a soldier who died in 2014 during one of Israel’s previous assaults on Gaza.

Israel has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in returning the bodies of deceased captives. The Palestinian group says it continues to press for proper equipment and support to comb through vast mounds of rubble and debris – where some 10,000 Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardments are still buried.

More than 68,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s two-year war.