U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford hold a press conference at the U.S. Department of Transportation Headquarters on Nov. 5, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Tasos Katopodis | Getty Images
U.S. logistics companies warned Thursday that the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to cut flight capacity at 40 major airports by 10% could markedly slow deliveries of airfreight right at the peak of the air shipping season.
The FAA order means that thousands of flights will be canceled each day.
Airfreight is carried in the bellies of commercial passenger aircraft, as well as on planes specifically designed to carry only cargo, such ones operated by UPS, FedEx and DHL.
“Air cargo depends on every part of the aviation ecosystem working in sync,” said Brandon Fried, executive director of the Airforwarders Association, in a statement.
“When capacity is cut and federal employees are stretched thin, the supply chain slows, and the longer this shutdown continues, the worse it will get,” Fried said.
The FAA’s reduction list will affect the four major airports in New York and New Jersey airports, JFK, LaGuardia, Newark and Teterboro, which are among the busiest in the U.S. in terms of private aviation.
Other major hubs affected by the cuts are in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles.
The FAA says the slowdown is necessary because absences by air traffic controller during the ongoing federal government shutdown.
National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that it could take “weeks to recover” from the impacts of the shutdown on air traffic controllers.
Logistics professionals said that while some major shippers have flexibility to change airport destinations to avoid cuts to airspace, that option can have limitations.
“Cargo planes like UPS, FedEx and DHL are better positioned to reroute their planes to regional airports, but not all of those airports can move out that much freight. They are not equipped,” said Anthony Pizza, vice president of commercial at AGS, an international freight forwarder.
“We could see these cargo airplanes consolidate their flights and run larger capacity flights,” Pizza said.
Air freight accounts for only about 1% of total shipped goods by weight.
But it is the go-to method for shipping high-value, time-sensitive items such as pharmaceuticals and electronics. Up to 35% of air freight consists of such items.
Perishables and just-in-time components for manufacturing are also moved by air.
“Domestic air is a critical transportation mode for many of our customers moving high-value, time-critical shipments,” said Mike Short, president of global forwarding at the logistics company C.H. Robinson.
“We’re talking automotive production line components, semiconductors, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defense materials, and energy equipment,” Short said.
“Our customers in these industries typically can’t afford downtime or freight delays given how their businesses operate,” he said.
Short said that because of the potential hit to air freight capacity, C.H. Robinson is implementing contingency plans with clients that would include shipping items domestically by ground.
“We’re not just looking at the impacted freight but also determining how existing inventory can be used,” said Short.
“For example, a customer might have an abundance of a vital component at one facility that their Southern facility will be out of tomorrow. We’re using our item-level technology to track inventory down and help keep production lines running.”
The digital freight booking marketplace Freightos noted that the airspace reduction comes during the pivotal air freight peak season, an amid an increase in air freight demand after a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping sparked hopes of a reduction in trade tension between their countries.
“Air rates from China to the United States have popped 17% and searches on these trade lanes on the Freightos platform have increased 3%,” said Frieghtos Chief Marketing Officer Eytan Buchman.
“In other words, the demand for holiday season air freight is there — and high,” Buchman.
International commercial flights are not slated to be reduced as of now.
But a spokesman for Kuehne + Nagel, one of the world’s biggest logistics providers, said the company is closely monitoring the situation.
“We will be working with our partners to mitigate any potential impact to our customers’ supply chains,” the spokesman said.
Brian Bourke, chief commercial officer for SEKO Logistics, said, “We’re still assessing the impact, as we may see most of the reductions on domestic traffic and there may not be as big an impact on the larger volume international airfreight lanes in and out of the United States.”
“However, any change in capacity leading up to a potential peak season for e-commerce could have ripple effects across the entire global supply chain,” Bourke said.
