Delta misplaced estimated $200 million from record-long US authorities shutdown, CEO says
The longest government shutdown on record cost Delta Air Lines an estimated $200 million, CEO Ed Bastian said Wednesday in the first disclosure by a U.S. airline concerning the shutdown’s financial impression.
Bastian told buyers that refunds “grew significantly” as bookings also slowed amid the uncertainty in air journey attributable to the 43-day shutdown, contributing to Delta’s loss of about 25 cents per share.
The shutdown, which started Oct. 1, led to long delays at major airports and historic flight cancellations at 40 of the nation’s busiest airports as more unpaid air visitors controllers missed work, citing further stress and the need to tackle facet jobs. As the shutdown dragged into a second month, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency order requiring industrial airways to cancel up to six% of their home flights — a resolution that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described as essential to guarantee secure air journey.
An American Airlines flight lands as a Delta Air Lines airplane taxis at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in the Queens borough of New York, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025. AP
“When you’ve got the secretary of transportation telling people we don’t have controllers, questioning the safety at some level of travel, which has never before happened,” Bastian said, it led to more clients holding off on reserving their vacation journey.
More than 10,000 flights have been cut between Nov. 7, when the FAA’s order took effect, and when the restrictions have been absolutely lifted on Nov. 16, less than two weeks before Thanksgiving, the busiest journey period in the U.S.
Despite the disruption to air journey, Bastian said Wednesday he believes the shutdown’s impacts are in the rearview. He said Delta had a busy Thanksgiving week and that bookings by the end of the yr, particularly round Christmas and New Year’s Day, have been “really strong.”
“I think we’re through it and it was transitory,” Bastian said of the shutdown. “We’re looking forward to a strong December, a strong close to the year.”
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian waits to be interviewed on the flooring of the New York Stock Exchange after ringing the opening bell, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. AP
Airports impacted by the flight restrictions during the shutdown included large hubs in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta. The flight cuts began at 4% and later grew to six% before the FAA rolled the restrictions back to three%, citing continued enhancements in air visitors controller staffing after shutdown ended Nov. 12.
Controllers have been among the federal workers who needed to continue working without pay throughout the shutdown, lacking two full paychecks.
President Donald Trump took to social media during the shutdown to strain controllers to “get back to work, NOW!!!” He called for a $10,000 bonus for those who stayed on the job and recommended docking pay for those who haven’t.
A Delta Air Lines flight departs from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 05 November 2025. ERIK S LESSER/EPA/Shutterstock
Per week after the shutdown ended, the FAA announced only 776 controllers and technicians with excellent attendance during the shutdown would obtain bonuses, leaving out practically 20,000 other staff.
On Wednesday, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation, Space and Innovation, despatched a letter to Duffy demanding that he also award bonuses to the remaining FAA staff.
“It is wrong to financially penalize these Federal employees for responsibly managing life events beyond their control while working without pay,” she said.
Duffy didn’t instantly reply Wednesday to the letter, however when requested about the bonuses last week at a news convention ahead of the Thanksgiving journey period, Duffy said that each he and the head of the FAA acknowledge “some of the difficult circumstances our controllers were going through” during the shutdown. But Duffy said a cutoff on the bonuses was essential.
“If you got 100% on your test, you get the sticker that’s a scratch-and-sniff sticker,” Duffy said, including that all the controllers and technicians who have been pressured to work unpaid would obtain full backpay.
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