The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would end an emergency order mandating cuts in domestic flights at 40 major U.S. airports, effective at 06:00 local time on Monday, the administration announced on Sunday.
The termination of the order will allow the U.S. National Airspace System to return to full, normal operations, according to a joint statement by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA head Bryan Bedford.
Staffing levels have continued to recover since the end of the government shutdown last Wednesday, according to the FAA.
Duffy said the focus will then shift to accelerating controller hiring and building a new air traffic control system.
The statement also announced that restrictions on some general aviation operations, commercial space launches, parachute operations, photo missions and other activities are due to expire.
The FAA said it is reviewing instances of airline non-compliance under the emergency order to assess possible enforcement measures.
The cuts, which started with a 4 percent reduction on Nov. 7 in flights at 40 major U.S. airports and expanded to 10 percent on Nov 14, were designed to address staffing shortages and reduce safety risks amid the record-long government shutdown. The move led to widespread cancellations and delays, causing significant disruptions at airports across the country.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a spending package passed by both chambers of the U.S. Congress on Nov 12, formally ending the record 43-day shutdown.
Analysts believe that while staffing levels are expected to gradually recover, flight delays and cancellations are likely to persist for some time.
FAA to end flight-cutting emergency order
China's 42nd Antarctic Expedition team has started unloading supplies for scientific exploration after arriving at waters near the Zhongshan Station, a Chinese research base in Antarctica.
The ongoing seven-month scientific exploration mission is supported by Chinese icebreakers the Xuelong and the Xuelong 2, which set sail from Shanghai on Nov 1.
The two icebreakers will deliver about 2,000 tons of supplies to the Zhongshan Station for scientific exploration.
The Xuelong 2 arrived first at a designated unloading spot about 12 kilometers from the Zhongshan Station. Later, the ship's Ka-32 helicopter transported in batches more than 300 tons of polar fuel to the research base when weather conditions were favorable.
"Nearly 90 members of the expedition team carried by the two ship are already at the Zhongshan Station, preparing for receiving supplies and assignments for scientific exploration," said Wang Tao, person in charge of unloading operations at the Zhongshan Station.
Thanks to more than 30 hours of efforts by the Xuelong 2 to widen the channel and lead the way, the Xuelong, which was carrying about 1,500 tons of supplies, has also arrived at the unloading spot.
The unloading operations, involving a combination of sea-ice transport and helicopter lifts, are expected to be finished within two weeks.
And then, the Xuelong and the Xuelong 2 will proceed to China's Qingling Station and Changcheng Station in Antarctica, respectively.
The expedition team includes more than 500 members from over 80 institutions on the Chinese mainland, along with researchers from more than 10 other countries and regions, such as Thailand, Chile and Portugal, as well as China's Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, in support of broader international scientific collaboration.
They will conduct multi-disciplinary scientific surveys, advance several major national research projects, and test domestically developed equipment under polar conditions.
Particularly, scientific drilling experiments in lakes deep in the Antarctic inland ice sheet will be carried out for the first time.
China's 42nd Antarctic Expedition team unloads supplies at Zhongshan Station
