Wary Fliers Face Delays, Especially in Charlotte, New York, and D.C.

A Newark Liberty International Airport traveler on Friday. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

Fliers’ shut down-related woes aren’t letting up.

More than 870 domestic and international airline flights were canceled across the U.S. Saturday, with 1,760 delays, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks flights.

To put that in context, the site’s full-day statistics for Friday suggest travelers endured 6,900 delays and about 1,025 cancellations.

Frustration for travels comes as the federal government shutdown entered its 39th day on Saturday. Earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration said it would cut up to 10% of flights at 40 airports between Friday and Nov. 14. As a result of the political standoff between Democrats and Republicans, air controllers have been working without pay since Oct. 1

By far the hardest hit was North Carolina’s Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, where about two-thirds of flights were delayed or cancelled, according to FlightAware’s Misery Map. The airport underwent a ground stop, halting traffic for roughly an hour Saturday morning, according to WCNC, a local television station. The station attributed the problems to staffing issues, but didn’t elaborate.

New York City and Washington, D.C., also suffered major issues, each with about one-third of flights canceled or delayed.

Write to Ian Salisbury at ian.salisbury@barrons.com