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The Federal Aviation Administration said Nov. 16 it is lifting all restrictions on commercial flights that were imposed at 40 major airports during the country's longest government shutdown.

Though airlines say they expect normal operations to resume within three or four days after the order is lifted, some have suggested that problems might linger longer than that.

91ÊÓƵland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Nov. 13 the move would help TSA employees who took extra shifts to keep security lines moving as paychecks stopped.

Flight reductions will not rise to 10% by the end of the week because more air traffic controllers are coming to work as the government shutdown ends.

The Transportation Department and the FAA have said they relied on data, including reports from pilots of controller responsiveness, to make the decision to reduce flights.

UPS and FedEx said Nov. 7 that they were grounding their fleets of McDonnell Douglas MD-11s “out of an abundance of caution." The planes make up about 9% and 4% of their fleets, respectively.

Flight delays have raised pressure on lawmakers to bring an end to the spending fight, and the government has mandated restrictions on travel at key hubs across the country.

The U.S. shutdown means air traffic controllers are about to miss their second paycheck. This past weekend, the FAA posted notices of large areas of airports or airspace that faced delays.

Airlines across the U.S. have canceled flights as the longest government shutdown in history snarls up air travel and forces thousands of passengers to change their travel plans.

U.S. airlines began canceling hundreds of flights Nov. 6 due to the Federal Aviation Administration’s order to reduce traffic at the country’s busiest airports starting Nov. 7.