"This is about where’s the pressure and how do we alleviate the pressure," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is cutting flights by ten percent in busy areas. This is to ensure safety as air traffic controllers face strain from the ongoing government shutdown. Controllers are working unpaid and facing staffing shortages.

The US government is aiming to ease the pressure on air traffic controllers suffering shutdown-related woes by curtailing flights. But airlines have experience with this kind of sudden disruption.

The Trump administration will ground 10 per cent of flights across 40 major US airports unless a deal to end the federal government shutdown is reached.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was cutting flight capacity by 10% across the 40 busiest markets to ensure safety during the shutdown.

The FAA said air traffic will be cut by 10% at 40 high-traffic markets. While the official FAA list is expected to come out on Thursday, Sea-Tac is the 12th-busiest airport in the country. Chances are, passengers leaving Sea-Tac will be traveling to an airport affected by the FAA mandate.

The move comes amid escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela. Here is what you should know.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that it would reduce flight capacity by 10 percent at 40 unspecified airports nationwide in a bid to reduce stress on air traffic controllers.