Live updates: Delays, cancellations hit SFO, OAK after FAA's 10% flight reduction

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday morning that short-haul flights to San Francisco International Airport would be delayed due to staffing shortages amid the federal government shutdown. The delays happened on the same day airlines began to reduce their flight schedules to meet the agency's new policy.

Flights to SFO within 1,000 nautical miles, which included all flights within California and as far as Colorado, were briefly suspended before resuming later in the morning with major delays. Aircraft were not allowed to depart to SFO because of a reported lack of air traffic controllers needed to safely direct them.

Airport spokesperson Doug Yakel said the delays would not affect transcontinental flights or international flights to SFO. Morning delays at the airport were averaging 35 minutes.

In the FAA's announcement of the temporary suspension of flights, it estimated delays could average 60 minutes with up to two hours in some cases.

The ground stop occurred on the same day major airports, like SFO, were expected to see a reduction in flights after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, announced earlier this week that he would be directing airlines to cancel up to 10 percent of flights across 40 airports due to staffing issues during the ongoing government shutdown.

Information, courtesy of flight records website FlightAware (flightaware.com), showed 45 flights were canceled at SFO as of Friday morning. The majority of flights were associated with commuter airline SkyWest, which operates regional flights on behalf of several different airlines, and then followed by United Airlines. and then followed by United Airlines.

Travelers are suggested to check with their airlines through their respective websites, phone apps, and personnel at the airport for further information.

Anxious travelers across the U.S. felt a bit of relief as airlines mostly stayed on schedule while gradually cutting flights because of the government shutdown.

At least 1,000 flights were called off on Friday to comply with the Federal Aviation Administration's order to reduce service. Some passengers were forced make last-minute changes and rebook on different flights.

Plenty of nervousness remained, as more canceled flights are expected in the coming days. Airports in Chicago, Atlanta, Denver and Dallas led the way with the most disruptions, and long security lines added to travelers' woes.

The upheaval will intensify the longer the shutdown lasts and could become chaotic if it extends into the Thanksgiving holiday, just weeks from now.

That's because the carrier has already identified the roughly 220 daily flights it will cut through Monday, Chief Operating Officer David Seymour told AP.

"We're going to notify all of our customers if their flight is disrupted," he said, so if you haven't heard from the airline, then your flight is "going to go."

Seymour says the airline is now working on finalizing its reduced schedule for the remainder of next week, when it is expected to slowly increase the number of cancellations to reach the FAA's target of 10%.

Sean Duffy said that every day the shutdown continues the situation with more controllers calling out of work may get worse.

So additional flight cuts might be needed -- particularly after controllers receive nothing on payday next Tuesday for the second time.

"If this shutdown doesn't end relatively soon, the consequence of that is going to be more controllers don't come to work," Duffy said. "And then we're going to have to continue to assess the pressure in the air space and make decisions that may again move us from 10% to 15%, maybe to 20. I don't want to see that."