The Federal Aviation Administration said it planned to impose 10% cuts starting on Friday, but then told airlines it would begin with 4% cuts and ramp up to 10% next week.
The flights will be cut by 1% each day the government shutdown continues.
“As (Transportation Secretary) Sean Duffy announced, they’re cutting in certain areas, 10%, and they want to make sure it’s 100% safe,” Trump said.
United Airlines told CNN that it would cancel 200 flights ahead of the reduction. United operates around 4,500 flights a day, so the cuts are expected to result in fewer than 200 daily cancellations, the carrier confirmed.
US aviation has already faced tens of thousands of flight delays over the last month of the shutdown. Additionally, over 434 staffing problems were reported by the FAA, CNN stated.
On Friday, the FAA said nearly half of the 30 busiest US airports faced shortages of air traffic controllers in the single worst day since the shutdown began.
The reduction comes after the administration announced it would cut traffic at the nation's 40 busiest airports.
“This is not a political decision; this was data-driven to make the right call to get ahead of any issues that could happen in airspace that could have negative consequences,” Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a Thursday Fox News interview.
“As we come into Thanksgiving, if we’re still in the shutdown posture, it’s going to be rough out there, really rough. We’ll mitigate the safety side. But will you fly on time? Will your flight actually go? That is yet to be seen, but there’ll be more disruption.”
Duffy warned Tuesday that if the federal government shutdown continues another week, it could lead to "mass chaos" and force him to close some national airspace to air traffic, a drastic move that could upend American aviation.
"If you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos, you will see mass flight delays. You'll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it," Duffy said at a press conference Tuesday.