The federal government shutdown has entered its second week, and already shortages of air traffic controllers have strained operations and disrupted flights at some U.S. airports. The situation may well get worse if the shutdown continues and employees start to miss paychecks. And there is no way to predict what airports might have problems on any given day. So be sure to check your flight's status before you head to the airport. If your flight is canceled, airlines will rebook you on a later flight. If you no longer want to take the trip, you should be able to get a refund. But each airline's policies can differ, and airlines are not required to pay cash compensation.

It's the last day to book a flight on Southwest Airlines without being hit with a fee to check bags after the airline abandoned a decades-long luggage policy. Southwest Airlines will start charging many of its customers a fee to check bags beginning on Wednesday, abandoning a decades-long practice that its executives once described as key to differentiating the budget carrier from its rivals. The airline announced the change in March, saying at the time that the the new policy would start with flights booked on Wednesday.

Aeromexico is the most on-time airline in the world, according to a data company that compiled figures for 2024. Cirium said in its annual ranking released on Thursday that nearly 87% of the Mexican airline's flights were on time in 2024. That puts Aeromexico slightly ahead of Saudi Arabian airline Saudia and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines. Delta was the best-scoring U.S. airline despite a July computer outage that caused thousands of flight cancellations. Canadian airlines WestJet and Air Canada, along with Denver-based budget airline Frontier, were at the bottom of Cirium's rankings among airlines in North America.